Indigenous Health

Last update July 2009 by Mick Draper

Reading lists
In the Health Sciences Library Tutorial completed in First Year MBBS you learnt how to distinguish citations to books, chapters in books and journal articles.
This is important because of the way you search for each of these.

Reid, J. and P. Trompf, Eds. (1991). The Health of Aboriginal Australia. Sydney, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
Miller P, Rainow S. (1997) ‘Don’t forget the plumber: research in remote Aboriginal communities.’ Australian Journal of Public Health 21(1) 96-97.
Kane J. (1997) Racialism and Democracy: The Legacy of White Australia. The Politics of Identity in Australia. Ed: Geoffrey Stokes. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Chapter 8

Using the Library Catalogue
To search for books by

Title

Author or Editor

Journal Title

Book chapters
Search for book chapters by the title or editor(s) of the book, not the chapter.

Subject headings
Finding other books that are on the same topic as ...

e.g. An indelible stain? : the question of genocide in Australia’s history

Yes the Library holds (some) feature films
and more, such as screenplays, and novels.
Search by title, director, producers, director of photography, or actors.

Other libraries catalogues
You can search the catalogues of other libraries from the links on Library A to Z

You have reciprocal borrowing rights from UniSA and Flinders.

Databases for finding journal articles (and sometimes other material)
The first choice database for medicine is PubMed.
PubMed is available at Uni of Adelaide Library and from outside the University network

From the Library home

The Catalogue

Databases or Resource Guide tabs on the Library home

To get the Uni of Adelaide customized version PubMed
in a new window, right click on this link then on Open Link in New Window
This provides links to the full text of articles to which Uni of Adelaide subscribes (usually).
This is true whether you are using PubMed from within the Uni of Adelaide network or from outside.
Just make sure you ask for PubMed from one of the sources above.

Our first search will be for aborigines and Australian health policy

Logic grids
I recommend using a logic grid to aid in formulating search language and logic.
Write down each concept you want to search at the head of a column.

There are 3 concepts

It's useful to find a Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) for each of these concepts.

Use PubMed's MeSH database to find the subject headings PubMed uses to describe these concepts.

MeSH Database
PubMed uses subject headings to describe the contents of articles. These subject headings are added to article citations to help you find relevant articles.
You can search for subject headings in the MeSH Database of PubMed.
Click on the link to the MeSH Database in the blue left hand side bar on the PubMed home.

Enter a single term to search for a MeSH.

The MeSH Database takes us to the subject heading Oceanic Ancestry Group.

Add this to your logic grid for your PubMed search.
To ensure that PubMed searches for this term as a subject heading add [mh] after the term

oceanic ancestry group[mh]

On the MeSH Database screen scroll down and look at the Entry Terms.

It isn't important what Entry Terms are, but they might give you an idea of the sorts of terms authors would use in the titles and abstracts to describe the contents of their articles.

We can search in the titles and abstracts of PubMed citations to find other articles that are about aborigines.
We could search for aborigine, aborigines, aboriginal, aboriginality, aboriginals etc
The shorthand way to do this is to search aborigin*

Add [tiab]

aborigin*[tiab]

to force PubMed to search only in the titles and abstracts of citations.
Change aborigines in the logic grid to aborigin*[tiab]

Truncation
You can use truncation as a shorthand.
Add the truncation symbol * to any group of letters and PubMed will find all the terms that start with those letters.

eg clot* will find clot OR clots OR clotting etc
you might also find cloth OR clothing etc

Never truncate MeSH or within phrases that aren't MeSH (but it's ok to truncate the last word of a phrase)

What other terms might turn up in the titles and abstracts of articles that mean aboriginal?
Perhaps add indigenous[tiab]

Notice I'm not suggesting that you search for oceanic ancestry group in the title and abstract because I don't think authors are likely to use this term.

Now look at the terms in the second column of the logic grid.

The MeSH for Australia is Australia

A search on the MeSH Australia in the PubMed database will also search the more specific MeSH indented below it.
This means that PubMed will also find all the citations that have each of the state and territory names added as subject headings.
This process is sometimes called explosion and you might come across it in the medical literature.

To see how powerful explosion can be in a search, look at the MeSH for Heart Diseases.

So finishing the the second column will make the grid look something like this

If you use a phrase with a field tag [mh] or [tiab] PubMed will search only for the phrase.
If you enter a phrase without a field tag, PubMed will search for each word in the phrase joined with AND logic.

Grab a bit of paper, a pen and your computer and see if you can construct the third column of the grid.
You'll need to find the MeSH for Health Policy, and think of other terms that authors might use in the titles and abstracts of their articles to describe the contents if they are writing on this topic.

Don't scroll down until you've had a go yourself.

Using the MeSH database will help you find the language you need in your PubMed searches.
The logic grid will help with the logic.

Logic rules
Join terms that are in the same column using OR logic

aborigin*[tiab] OR oceanic ancestry group[mh] OR indigenous[tiab]

Enclose these terms in round brackets

(aborigin*[tiab] OR oceanic ancestry group[mh] OR indigenous[tiab])

Do this for each column.

Join the column searches with AND logic

(aborigin*[tiab] OR oceanic ancestry group[mh] OR indigenous[tiab]) AND (australia[mh] OR australia*[tiab] OR queensland[tiab] OR victoria*[tiab] OR tasmania*[tiab] OR northern territory[tiab]) AND (health policy[mh] OR polic*[tiab] OR health care reform*[tiab] OR healthcare reform*[tiab] OR health care strateg*[tiab] OR healthcare strateg*[tiab])

Enter this search in the PubMed database not the MeSH database.

If you can't find a MeSH
You might be looking for citations on the health gap between aboriginal and other Australians.
This term doesn't come up in the MeSH database.

Search in the PubMed database for your term but restrict your search to the titles of articles by adding [ti] to the end of the search term.

Display the results in Citation format to show the MeSH attached.
To do this click anywhere in the Display box.
Click Citation on the drop down menu.

The Citation display includes article title, authors, publication details, abstract if available, and a list of MeSH if the citation is indexed.

What if you find too much?
This can be a problem especially if a lot of the citations you're finding aren't really relevant.

Limit Using MeSH

If you find too many irrelevant articles you can limit your searches to just those articles that have MeSH.
Search on ear diseases in Australia.

Use the MeSH Database to find the MeSH ear diseases.
Click in the box to the left of the heading.

Click on Send to.
Then on Search Box with AND.

Repeat using the second MeSH australia, by
Clicking in the box to the left of the MeSH.
Clicking on Send to Search Box with AND

Now that both your search terms are in the PubMed search box, click on the Search PubMed button.

The search will happen in the PubMed database.

The citations will appear in Summary format providing you with article title, authors, publication details, a unique PubMed identification number, a link to related articles, and if the article is free to all in full text on the internet, then there will be a link to it.

If you change the display to Abstract you can view citation abstracts if they are available, and you may find full text Uni of Adelaide Online icons.

If the citations you want don't have Uni of Adelaide icons, and you are on the University network you can click on any publisher icons that appear.
From outside the Uni, even though you are using the customised version of PubMed clicking on a publisher icon will usually result in your being asked for a password you can't supply.
Instead, look for the title of the journal (not the title of the article) on the Library Catalogue to see if we have this journal in electronic or print formats.

The Catalogue doesn't always recognise the abbreviations of journal titles used by PubMed.
It's best to use only the full titles when searching in the Library Catalogue.
Point your cursor at the abbreviated title in the PubMed database to view the full title of the journal, but don't click.

Major MeSH
You can increase the specificity of searches by using Major MeSH.
When subject headings are added to citations they are listed as Major MeSH or minor MeSH.

Return to the MeSH database and once again search for Ear Diseases.
This time click in the box to the left of
Restrict Search to Major Topic Headings only

Send to Search Box with AND
Repeat for australia but don't make this a Major MeSH as countries are rarely listed as Major MeSH.

Try this now and compare this with the previous search.

MeSH Subheadings
Another way to make your searches more specific is to limit searches to particular aspects of a MeSH using MeSH subheadings.
Search a single topic in the MeSH database.
Click on the hypertext for the MeSH.

Look through the list of subheadings and choose as many as you want by clicking in the box to the left of a subheading.
PubMed will use OR logic to combine the different subheadings.
If you choose none of the subheadings, then all will be searched combined with OR logic.

If your MeSH has more specific MeSH listed below it, these MeSH will be exploded but of these only those citations that include the selected subheading(s) will be found.

Have a go at searching for Ear Diseases as a Major MeSH with a subheading (or 2 or 3 subheadings) and Australia as a MeSH.

Limiting Using PubMed Clinical Queries Filter
Click on Clinical Queries in the blue left hand sidebar in the PubMed Database.

You can add your terms to search a clinical study type, for systematic reviews, or aspects of medical genetics.

The search below looks for articles that are focused on therapy for otitis or labyrinthitis.

PubMed Limits
You can limit the number of citations you find, but you must be aware that you could lose important articles.
Click on the Limits tab on the results screen.

The limits appear.
You can limit by date, and/or English language articles.

If you limit by Human, or many of the other limits you'll lose the in process and supplied by publisher citations.

Click on Go at the top or bottom of the screen to enforce the Limits.
To remove Limits, click on the tick mark in the Limits tab.

Related Articles
If you are having trouble finding enough relevant citations you can click on the Related Articles link on a relevant citation to find more articles that are similar.
PubMed will run its own algorithm based on MeSH, title terms, and abstract terms.
Each citation will usually produce about 100 related articles.

Informit Health
This is a compilation of eleven databases that have journal, book and other materials related to Australia
Access is from the Catalogue, or from Databases>General Practice, or Databases>Health Sciences

We'll try to find material to answer the question

What is the association between aboriginal health workers and smoking?

There are 2 concepts here. We are interested in finding citations to articles that are about aboriginal health workers and smoking, including their role in helping patients to quit, or the influence on patients if the health worker is a smoker.

Underneath each of these concepts you should add terms that are synonyms or alternatives.
These terms will in part be determined by the databases in which you search.

At least one of the Informit Health databases uses MeSH.
It's useful to check in the MeSH Database to see whether there are MeSH for these concepts.
I'm not asking you to search in PubMed, but to find the MeSH to add to your logic grid.
You can also look at any Entry Terms in the MeSH database to add to your logic grid as well as any other terms that are synonyms or alternative terms for these concepts.

Make a logic grid now for both concepts.

Informit Health doesn't use [mh] or [tiab]

If you enter phrases it's best to put them in double quotes

"aboriginal health workers"

Informit Health uses * for truncation on single words.
In phrases use all forms of the phrase

"aboriginal health worker" or "aboriginal health workers"

If we are progressing well I'll ask you to do this for yourself right now.

Don't scroll down until you've tried this.

You can enter the terms from the first column in the first search box of Informit Health,
and the terms from the second column in the second search box.
Click on the Search button.

How did you go with your search?
You may have noticed duplicates or near duplicates of some articles.
This happens because some articles turn up in more than one of the 11 databases searched by Informit Health.

Scopus
This is a huge database that includes everything in PubMed plus everything in another biomedical database called Embase from 1996.
Although the database is bigger than PubMed the search engine isn't as powerful.
In part Scopus makes up for this by being a citation database. It lists all the citations to articles it knows that cite those found by your search.

Access to Scopus is available from the Library home Quick Links.

Scopus is also available from the Catalogue and the Databases site.

You can use almost the same search in Scopus and PubMed, but
although Scopus can cope with MeSH it doesn't explode searches.

In Scopus include phrases that aren't MeSH in double quotes.
Don't use field tags such as [mh] or [tiab]

Because Scopus can find a MeSH such as asthma, and also find title and abstract words such as asthmas, asthmatic, asthmatics etc, you can use both asthma & asthma* in a search.

(asthma OR asthma*) AND (oceanic ancestry group OR aborigin* OR indigenous) and (australia OR australia* OR queensland OR "new south wales" OR nsw OR victoria* OR tasmania* OR "northern territory")

The Basic Search in Scopus provides only limited space for searches.
Advanced Search gives you much more room.

I always select the Scopus Code for title abstract and keywords.

Scopus will generate a set of round brackets.
Paste your search inside these.
Click on the Search button.

When Scopus produces your search results any links to other articles that cite the articles found will be linked to the right.

Some of these citing references will be cited themselves, so it may be worth looking at the citing citations of the citing references of the citations found in your search; ok?

Click in the box to the left of citations to select them for saving, printing, etc.
Once you have selected citing references I suggest you Add them to a list.

Click on Back to return to your search results.
You can select from these citations well.

Then Add these to the list.
When you have finished collecting citations, scroll up to the top of the Scopus screen and click on MyList.

Click on Select All before printing saving etc.

Factiva
This is a database of newspaper articles and business information from around the world.
The Library has limited licences for Factiva and if all are being used when you try to logon you will be asked to try again later.

Factiva is available from Quick Links on the Library home, from the catalogue,
You can look through the Library's Introduction to Factiva

You can use the Subject and Region terms to limit your searches.

You can use date limits.

AusStats
You can view the Australian Bureau of Statistics web site and search or browse for their documents.
You can link to the site through the catalogue or from the link above.

There are two links to stats relating to Indigenous Australians on the AusStats home site.

These two documents can provide info on many aspects of the health status of indigenous Australians.

You can use the search box to look for particular stats

Search Alerts
If there is time we'll talk about setting up alerts in PubMed and Scopus searches.

PubMed
Run a search on PubMed.

e.g.

(health service*[tiab] OR health services[mh]) AND (oceanic ancestry group[mh] OR aborigin*[tiab] OR indigenous[tiab]) and (australia[mh] OR australia*[tiab] OR queensland[tiab] OR new south wales[tiab] OR nsw[tiab] OR victoria*[tiab] OR tasmania*[tiab] OR northern territory[tiab])

Before you can requests alerts in PubMed you need to register with MyNCBI.
In the top right of the PubMed screen click on Register.

Complete the registration form.
Click on Sign In.

Run your search.
Click on Save Search.

Click on the Save button.

Click in the Yes button to set up your alert.

Scopus Alerts
In Scopus there is a link to set up an alert on the Results screen.

You will have to register.
Note that you can have an email alert or an RSS feed.

Informit Health Alerts
Click on the Create an Alert link on the Results screen

Then you have to provide an email address for the alert,
Decide how long you want the alert to continue,
C lick on Create Alert.

Final Thoughts
Logic grids will help you with any search you do on any database.
Get your language right by thinking of synonyms or alternative terms.
Get your logic right so that the database searches for what you want

Look at the features of each database to see what will help you to make your searches efficient. For example PubMed and Scopus use MeSH to find subjects, and Factiva has subject and region fields to help reduce the number of irrelevant articles found.

Learn the differences between what databases find. For example Informit Health will find journal articles, books, reports etc about Australia that probably won't turn up in the big international databases such as PubMed and Scopus. Factiva will find newspaper articles that won't be found in PubMed or Scopus.

Mick Draper is employed to point you in the right direction not only in this subject but for all your information needs in the MBBS.