A systematic review is a review of research that aims to be principled, methodical and explicit. A systematic review addresses a clearly defined research question and uses explicit and standardised methods to identify and review the literature (EPPI-Centre).
The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions states that systematic reviews have the following characteristics:
Which type of review?
The PICO model is a tool widely used to develop answerable questions.
Population, Patient or Problem |
Who are the people being studied or What is the problem being looked at? |
Intervention |
What is the treatment or intervention being studied? (treat, diagnose, observe) |
Comparison, Control or Comparator |
What is the intervention compared to? (e.g. other interventions, standard treatment, no treatment) |
Outcome |
What are the relevant outcomes and how are they measured? |
Chapter 5 of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions has more information on the defining each element of the PICO acronym.
Variants of PICO
PIOUse when there is no Comparison, Control or Comparator |
PICOTIncludes Time from the intervention that outcomes are measured. |
PICOSIncludes Study Design e.g. cohorts or randomized controlled trials. |
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