Table 1.

PICO Questions

PICO Question	Study Characteristic	Inclusion Criteria
PICO question 1: chest radiograph plus clinical judgment vs clinical judgment alone	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Chest radiograph plus clinical judgment
	Comparison	Clinical judgment alone
	Outcome	Primary outcome: proportion of participants who were not cured or not substantially improved at follow-up
PICO question 2: procalcitonin or CRP levels vs symptoms alone	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Procalcitonin or CRP levels plus symptoms
	Comparison	Symptoms alone
	Outcome	Confirmation of pneumonia or rule out
PICO question 3: diagnostic algorithm plus clinical judgment vs clinical judgment alone	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Diagnostic algorithm, clinical rule plus clinical judgment
	Comparison	Clinical judgment alone
	Outcome	Confirmation of pneumonia or rule out
PICO question 4: microbiological testing plus clinical judgment vs clinical judgment alone	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Microbiological tests such as culture, serologic, and PCR testing
	Comparison	Clinical judgment alone
	Outcome	Confirmation of cause of pneumonia
PICO question 5: antibiotics vs no antibiotics in suspected pneumonia	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Antibiotics
	Comparison	No antibiotics
	Outcome	Primary outcome: proportion of participants who were not cured or not substantially improved at follow-up
PICO question 6: nonantibiotic symptomatic treatment plus antibiotic vs antibiotic alone	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Cough suppressants, mucolytics, systemic corticosteroids, inhaled corticosteroids, anticholinergics, NSAIDs, vitamins C and D plus antibiotic
	Comparison	Antibiotic
	Outcome	Primary outcome: proportion of participants who were not cured or not substantially improved at follow-up
PICO question 7: antibiotics with atypical coverage vs antibiotics without atypical coverage	Patient	Adult outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia
	Intervention	Antibiotics with atypical coverage
	Comparison	Antibiotics without atypical coverage
	Outcome	Primary outcome: proportion of participants who were not cured or not substantially improved at follow-up
PICO question 8: antiviral vs no antiviral in suspected pneumonia during influenza season	Patient	Outpatients with acute cough due to suspected pneumonia during influenza season
	Intervention	Antiviral
	Comparison	No antiviral
	Outcome	1.Proportion of patients receiving antibiotic prescription 2.Proportion of patients obtaining outpatient care office visit 3.Proportion of patients receiving ED evaluation 4.Proportion of patients hospitalized 5.Proportion of patients who die 6.Proportion of patients with adverse events (eg, nausea, sleepiness, and so on)

CRP = C-reactive protein; NSAID = nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug; PCR = polymerase chain reaction; PICO = patient, intervention, comparison, outcome.