Research guides: Health &amp; Society Resources @ UTSC: Structure Your Research Question

Research Question Frameworks

There are many frameworks used in the health sciences to develop and structure research questions in academic and clinical settings. The frameworks are made up of acronyms representing the key components for different types of research questions.

What are the benefits of using a framework?

Develop a focused, answerable research question
Identify the main concepts within the research question
Generate key terms for each main concept to use in a literature search

The following page describes different frameworks you can use to structure or break down your research question. Choose the most appropriate one for the type of research you're performing (clinical, quantitative, qualitative, etc.).

PICO Framework

When can you use the PICO framework?

Clinical research questions (in particular, questions about the effectiveness of interventions)
Quantitative research questions
Systematic reviews

Elements of the PICO framework

The PICO acronym stands for the following components: (1) patient, population, or problem, (2) intervention, (3) comparison or control (optional), and (4) outcome.

PICO Examples by Question Domain

The table below outlines how the PICO components can vary according to the domain (type) of your question. Please note that the table provides examples and is not meant to be exhaustive. Talk to your instructor or librarian if you need help using the PICO framework for your assignment or project.

Question Type (Domain)	P	I	C	O
Therapy	Disease or condition Patient's demographics or characteristics	Procedural intervention Medication Lifestyle change	Standard care Comparison intervention Placebo No treatment	Outcome(s) of interest (e.g. management of disease or condition)
Etiology (Causation)	Disease or condition Patient's risk factors	Exposure to condition or risk factors of interest	Absence of condition or risk factors	Outcome(s) of interest (e.g. development of disease or condition)
Diagnosis	Disease or condition	Diagnostic test or tool Procedure	Reference standard / gold standard tool or procedure Alternative tool or procedure	Outcome(s) of interest (e.g. measures of test utility such as specificity or sensitivity)
Prognosis (Forecast)	Disease or condition	Prognostic factor	None	Outcome(s) of interest (e.g. mortality rate, recurrence)
Prevention	Disease or condition Patient's risk factors	Preventive measure Medication Lifestyle change	Alternative preventive measure	Outcome(s) of interest (e.g. disease incidence, mortality rate)

Extensions of the PICO framework

Certain research questions may have additional elements. These can be incorporated into the PICO framework using the following letters (as PICOT, PICOS, PICOTT, PICOTS, or PICOTTS):

T: time frame
T: type of study
S: setting