PICO is a format that helps construct an answerable questions and devise a strategy for searching for evidence. The PICO question has 4 parts.
Patient
Information about the patient e.g. age, diagnosis, other important criteria
Intervention
Treatment, exposure, diagnostic test
Comparison
Comparison treatment, exposure, diagnostic test (usually gold standard)
Outcome
What you are trying to measure or see improvement in.
Patient - adults with acute bronchitis
Intervention - antibiotics
Comparison - inhaled albuterol
Outcome - earlier improvement in clinical symptoms
Full PICO question:
Do adults with acute bronchitis who are treated with antibiotics have improved clinical symptoms earlier compared to those who are given inhaled albuterol?