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Table 2 Study eligibility criteria: Modified (PICOS) Framework

From: Partnering with frail or seriously ill patients in research: a systematic review

PICOS [34]

Inclusion Criteria

Exclusion Criteria

Participants (P)

• Frail and/or seriously ill adult patients as per definitions for frailty and serious illness (e.g., elderly patients exhibiting physical and/or cognitive impairments, patients with high symptom burden due to acute illness or treatment effects, acute episodic illness, palliative patients; patients susceptible to adverse events including mortality, morbidity, disability, hospitalization, and nursing home admission).

• Studies where patients were excluded due to frailty of condition (physical and or cognitive) or deemed too ill to participate during acute episodes of serious illness or treatment.

• Patients not identified as frail or seriously ill, i.e., survivors, chronic disease (focus on single disease without description of acuity/severity of condition).

• Participants from broader community or public engagement (with no descriptors of frailty and serious illness)

• Patients for whom there were no descriptors of physical characteristics or cognitive status.

• Pediatric and youth patients (< 18 yrs).

Phenomenon of Interest (I)

• Engagement of frail and/or seriously ill patients as partners in research, i.e., at the level of involvement, collaboration, empowerment.

• Engagement of patients as objects of study, i.e., doing research on or to.

• Engagement that took the form of informing patients of research activities, or at the level of consultation only.

Comparator (C)

No comparator

Outcome (O)

• Methods and timing of engagement (i.e., stage(s) of research process).

• Level of engagement.

• Engagement strategies, factors associated with barriers and facilitators to engagement.

• Positive and/or negative impacts of engagement on patient(s), researcher(s), research and/or ethical concerns.

• Primary research outcomes where patients were research participants only.

Study Type (S)

• Peer-reviewed qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods studies.

• Letters.

• Commentaries/editorials.

• Studies reported in non-peer reviewed journals.

• Conference abstracts/ presentations.

• Dissertations.

• Review articles.

Language

No language restrictions.