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An example of a clinical Question put into the PICOT formula.
Does a Mediterranean diet reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in women?
|
ACRONYM LETTERS |
DEFINITION |
EXAMPLES/ SEARCH TERMS |
|
P |
Patient Population |
women, adults |
|
I |
Intervention of Interest |
Mediterranean diet |
|
C |
Comparison intervention of interest |
Regular diet/ no intervention |
|
O |
Outcome(s) of interest |
Reduce disease cardiovascular |
|
T |
Time of interest |
tbd |
Steps to Finding the Articles that Answer your Clinical Question
Step One: Identify keywords in your research question.
Does a Mediterranenan diet reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in women?
Mediterranean diet risk cardiovascular disease reduce women
Step Two: Brainstorm for additional terms (synonyms)
Olive oil, heart attack, heart disease, adults, female patients, prevent
Step Three: Conduct a search in databases using your keywords linking them together with Boolean terms. Hint, look for Advanced Search options.
CINAHL, Google Scholar & PubMed are recommended databases
“Mediterranean diet” AND (heart OR cardiovascular) AND female AND patients
Step Four: Refine the search.
Identify new keywords or subject headings from your results. Add limiters for year of publication. Try a different database if you are not getting the results that you want.