Comparing patient characteristics, type of intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) queries with unguided searching: a randomized controlled crossover trial.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Translating a question into a query using patient characteristics, type of intervention, control, and outcome (PICO) should help answer therapeutic questions in PubMed searches. The authors performed a randomized crossover trial to determine whether the PICO format was useful for quick searches of PubMed.

Methods

Twenty-two residents and specialists working at the Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Centre were trained in formulating PICO queries and then presented with a randomized set of questions derived from Cochrane reviews. They were asked to use the best query possible in a five-minute search, using standard and PICO queries. Recall and precision were calculated for both standard and PICO queries.

Results

Twenty-two physicians created 434 queries usi

SUBMITTER: Hoogendam A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3324808 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature