Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many recently published clinical studies report sex-specific data. This information may help to improve clinical decision-making for both sexes, but it is not easily accessible in MEDLINE. The aim of this project was to develop and v...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2009-04-01
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| Series: | BMC Medical Research Methodology |
| Online Access: | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/9/25 |
| _version_ | 1811313787620294656 |
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| author | Haafkens Joke A Deurenberg Rikie Moerman Clara J |
| author_facet | Haafkens Joke A Deurenberg Rikie Moerman Clara J |
| author_sort | Haafkens Joke A |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many recently published clinical studies report sex-specific data. This information may help to improve clinical decision-making for both sexes, but it is not easily accessible in MEDLINE. The aim of this project was to develop and validate a search filter that would facilitate the retrieval of studies reporting high quality sex-specific data on clinical questions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A filter was developed by screening titles, abstracts and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in a set of 80 high quality and relevant papers, 75 of which were identified through a review of clinical guidelines and five through other means. The filter, for use on OvidSP™, consists of nine command lines for searching free text words in the title, abstract and MeSH of a paper. It was able to identify 74/80 (92.5%) of the articles from which it was derived. The filter was evaluated in a set of 622 recently published original studies on Alzheimer's disease and on asthma. It was validated against a reference of 98 studies from this set, which provided high quality, clinically relevant, sex-specific evidence. Recall and precision were used as performance measures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The filter demonstrated 81/98 (83%) recall and 81/125 (65%) precision in retrieving relevant articles on Alzheimer's disease and on asthma. In comparison, only 30/98 (31%) recall would have been achieved if sex-specific MeSH terms only had been used.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This sex-specific search filter performs well in retrieving relevant papers, while its precision rate is good. It performs better than a search with sex-specific MeSH. The filter can be useful to anyone seeking sex-specific clinical evidence (e.g., guideline organizations, researchers, medical educators, clinicians).</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T11:01:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-6bb8edfd9631456eb98b530bb383f1b4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2288 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T11:01:06Z |
| publishDate | 2009-04-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Research Methodology |
| spelling | doaj.art-6bb8edfd9631456eb98b530bb383f1b42022-12-22T02:49:24ZengBMCBMC Medical Research Methodology1471-22882009-04-01912510.1186/1471-2288-9-25Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™Haafkens Joke ADeurenberg RikieMoerman Clara J<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Many recently published clinical studies report sex-specific data. This information may help to improve clinical decision-making for both sexes, but it is not easily accessible in MEDLINE. The aim of this project was to develop and validate a search filter that would facilitate the retrieval of studies reporting high quality sex-specific data on clinical questions.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A filter was developed by screening titles, abstracts and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in a set of 80 high quality and relevant papers, 75 of which were identified through a review of clinical guidelines and five through other means. The filter, for use on OvidSP™, consists of nine command lines for searching free text words in the title, abstract and MeSH of a paper. It was able to identify 74/80 (92.5%) of the articles from which it was derived. The filter was evaluated in a set of 622 recently published original studies on Alzheimer's disease and on asthma. It was validated against a reference of 98 studies from this set, which provided high quality, clinically relevant, sex-specific evidence. Recall and precision were used as performance measures.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The filter demonstrated 81/98 (83%) recall and 81/125 (65%) precision in retrieving relevant articles on Alzheimer's disease and on asthma. In comparison, only 30/98 (31%) recall would have been achieved if sex-specific MeSH terms only had been used.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This sex-specific search filter performs well in retrieving relevant papers, while its precision rate is good. It performs better than a search with sex-specific MeSH. The filter can be useful to anyone seeking sex-specific clinical evidence (e.g., guideline organizations, researchers, medical educators, clinicians).</p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/9/25 |
| spellingShingle | Haafkens Joke A Deurenberg Rikie Moerman Clara J Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ BMC Medical Research Methodology |
| title | Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ |
| title_full | Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ |
| title_fullStr | Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ |
| title_full_unstemmed | Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ |
| title_short | Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™ |
| title_sort | locating sex specific evidence on clinical questions in medline a search filter for use on ovidsp™ |
| url | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2288/9/25 |
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