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EpidemiologyLast update: 30 September 2009, I've divided this page into two sections. The first provides you with
some
tips on searching for material on Medline, while the second
section provides links to web pages, reports, and other databases.
There's also a section on burden of disease. Searching MedlineRemember that Medline has a Thesaurus of terms - MeSH (Medical Subject Headings), a controlled vocabulary used for indexing articles in Medline. MeSH terminology provides a consistent way to retrieve information where authors may use different terminology for the same concepts. You will find material on epidemiology and epidemiologic methods in Medline, but you will need to be aware of the thesaurus (MeSH) terms used to search for the various topics. Below are some examples of the language Medline uses to describe the concepts in this field. MeSH - Epidemiologic Research Design MeSH - Quality-Adjusted Life Years Many topics in MeSH have hierarchies of more specific subcategories or related terms.The indentations in the lists reflect the structure of the hierarchy, and the + signs at the end of terms indicate that there is a further hierarchy of terms not displayed here. Any of these terms can be searched individually, or you can "explode" terms to search sections of the list. There is another option for searching the epidemiology of specific diseases, or classes of disease. To search for articles on the epidemiology of specific disease you can simply add the subheading "epidemiology" to the term. For a list of the abbreviations used for subheadings in PubMed click here Try using the search structure below to find articles on the epidemiology of lung cancer in relation to smoking. COMBINELung Neoplasms/Epidemiology (MeSH
Term) AND Smoking (MeSH term) PubMed Search Formulationlung neoplasms/ep[majr] AND smoking[majr] AND english[lang]This search strategy uses the subheading epidemiology "ep" associated with lung cancer. The section in the square brackets includes majr - which focuses the search on articles where the subject is a major issue in the article. The search is then limited to articles which include smoking, also as a major subject, and which are in English, or which have English abstracts. PubMed's default setting is to "explode" all terms, and so this search will include the subcategories of lung neoplasms listed below. Lung Neoplasms and the subcategory of Smoking - Marijuana Smoking. Click here to see how it works. PubMed
Search. Relating Your Search to a Specific Country or StateMedline allows you to search for health information as it relates to individual countries. For exampleExploding this thesaurus term will search for Australia as a whole, and the individual states and territories as well, whereas if you simply search for the word "Australia*" you will miss the specific individual states. When searching for material relating to specific countries it can be useful to search the name of the country as a word too, with appropriate truncation. For example Australia* - truncating the word will search for Australia, or Australian as words in any field. The search formulation will need brackets to ensure that the Boolean logic is executed in the correct sequence. Try the sample search on the epidemiology of lung cancer in relation to smoking, but this time limit the search to Australian studies. PubMed Search Formulationlung neoplasms/ep[mh] AND smoking[mh] AND (Australia[mh] OR Australia*) AND english[lang]Click here to see how it works. PubMed Search. WARNING For Australian material don't forget to check Meditext too - it uses the same thesaurus terms as Medline. Meditext
Other Australian ResourcesCentral Northern Adelaide Health Service: A Social Health Atlas HealthMap
(A Social Health Atlas of South Australia, 2nd ed. 1996) A Social Health Atlas of Australia. 2nd. edition, 1999 Social Health Atlas of South Australia (Online), 2008
Burden of DiseaseBurden of Disease (AIHW)The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's burdern of disease page, with links to data, and the full text of a selected publications. Burden of Disease: Health Status of Victorians - Victorian Government Health Information, Australia Chronic Disease Indicators Database Chronic Diseases and Associated Risk Factors (AIHW) DALY (Disability-Adjusted Life Year) Problems and solutions in calculating quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) QALY (Quality-Adjusted Life Year) Report of the NSW Chief Health Officer: Burden of disease South
Australian Burden of Disease Study WHO | Global Burden of Disease (GBD)
Other SourcesCDC WONDER bmj.com Topics : Epidemiologic studies bmj.com Topics : Screening (epidemiology) Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemics Dictionary
of (Ecological) Epidemiology eMJA: Articles on Statistics, epidemiology and research design Epi
Info Epidemiology
for the Uninitiated. 4th ed. 1997 Health Report - Epidemiology Population
Research and Outcome Studies - PROS Publications Population
Research and Outcome Studies - PROS Reports Returns
on Investment in Public Health: An Epidemiological and Economic Analysis Supercourse
- Epidemiology, the Internet and Global Health WWW Virtual Library: Medicine and Health: Epidemiology |
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