| Type of Question | Patient/Population | Intervention/Exposure | Comparison | Outcome Measures |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Treatment/Therapy | The patient's disease or condition | A therapeutic measure such as lifestyle change, education, counseling, surgery, or medication | Standard of care, other interventions, or placebo. | Mortality rate, days lost from work, or disability. |
| Prevention | Patient's risk factors and general health condition | A preventive measure such as medication or a lifestyle change | Incidence of disease, mortality rate, days lost from work. | |
| Diagnosis | The target disease or condition | A diagnostic test or procedure | Measures of the test utility such as sensitivity, specificity, or odds ratio. | |
| Prognosis | The main prognostic factor, clinical problems in terms of duration and severity | The exposure of interest is usually time, sometimes expressed as watchful waiting. | Survival rates, mortality rates, rates of disease progression | |
| Etiology/Harm | The patient's risk factors, current health disorders, or general health condition | The intervention of exposure of interest includes indicating the strength of the risk factor and the duration of exposure. | It does not apply here | Disease incidence, rate of disease progression, or mortality rate. |