P.1.28 Air pollution and diseases: a practical tool for effective pubmed search

ObjectivesTo identify efficient PubMed search filters for the study of outdoor air pollution determinants of diseases.MethodsWe listed Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and non-MeSH terms that seemed pertinent to outdoor air pollutants exposure as determinants of diseases. Proportions of potentially pertinent articles retrieved by each term were estimated. We then formulated two filters: one ‘more specific’, one ‘more sensitive’. Their performances were compared with a gold standard of systematic reviews on associations between diseases and outdoor air pollution. We calculated, for both the filters, the number (of abstract) needed to read (NNR) to identify one potentially pertinent article, exploring three diseases potentially associated with outdoor air pollution.ResultsThe combination of terms that yielded a threshold of potentially pertinent articles≥40% permitted to formulate the ‘more specific’ filter. On the basis of the combination of all search terms under study we formulated the ‘more sensitive’ filter. In comparison with the gold standard, the ‘more specific’ filter had the highest specificity (67.4%; with a sensitivity of 82.5%) and the ‘more sensitive’ filter had the highest sensitivity (98.5%; with a specificity of 47.9%). For the ‘more specific’ filter and the ‘more sensitive’ one the NNR to find one potentially pertinent article was 1.9 and 3.3, respectively.ConclusionsThe proposed search filters help investigating environmental determinants of medical conditions. We published them on: Curti S et al. PubMed search filters for the study of putative outdoor air pollution determinants of disease. BMJ Open. 2016;6 (12):e013092.

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PubMed search filters for the study of putative outdoor air pollution determinants of disease

BMJ Open ◽

10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013092 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 6 (12) ◽

pp. e013092 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Stefania Curti ◽

Davide Gori ◽

Valentina Di Gregori ◽

Andrea Farioli ◽

Alberto Baldasseroni ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution ◽

Search Filters ◽

Pubmed Search

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Using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) to Enhance PubMed Search Strategies for Evidence-Based Practice in Physical Therapy

Physical Therapy ◽

10.2522/ptj.20100178 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 92 (1) ◽

pp. 124-132 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Randy R. Richter ◽

Tricia M. Austin

Keyword(s):

Search Strategy ◽

Evidence Based Practice ◽

Physical Therapists ◽

Mesh Term ◽

Evidence Based ◽

Medical Subject Headings ◽

Search Terms ◽

Mesh Terms ◽

Subject Headings ◽

Pubmed Search

Background Evidence-based practice (EBP) is an important paradigm in health care. Physical therapists report lack of knowledge and time constraints as barriers to EBP. Objective The purpose of this technical report is to illustrate how Medical Subject Headings (MeSH), a controlled vocabulary thesaurus of indexing terms, is used to efficiently search MEDLINE, the largest component of PubMed. Using clinical questions, this report illustrates how search terms common to physical therapist practice do or do not map to appropriate MeSH terms. A PubMed search strategy that takes advantage of text words and MeSH terms is provided. Results A search of 139 terms and 13 acronyms was conducted to determine whether they appropriately mapped to a MeSH term. The search results were categorized into 1 of 5 outcomes. Nearly half (66/139) of the search terms mapped to an appropriate MeSH term (outcome 1). When a search term did not appropriately map to a MeSH term, it was entered into the MeSH database to search for an appropriate MeSH term. Twenty-one appropriate MeSH terms were found (outcomes 2 and 4), and there were 52 search terms for which an appropriate MeSH term was not found (outcomes 3 and 5). Nearly half of the acronyms did not map to an appropriate MeSH term, and an appropriate MeSH term was not found in the database. Limitations The results are based on a limited number of search terms and acronyms. Conclusions Understanding how search terms map to MeSH terms and using the PubMed search strategy can enable physical therapists to take full advantage of available MeSH terms and should result in more-efficient and better-informed searches.

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Indoor and Outdoor Air Pollution and Human Cancer

10.1007/978-3-642-78197-1 ◽

1993 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Human Cancer ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution ◽

Indoor And Outdoor

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Faculty Opinions recommendation of Long-term associations of outdoor air pollution with mortality in Great Britain.

Faculty Opinions – Post-Publication Peer Review of the Biomedical Literature ◽

10.3410/f.1097449.553514 ◽

2008 ◽

Author(s):

Youcheng Liu

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Great Britain ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution

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Outdoor Air Pollution and Depression in Canada: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study from 2011 to 2016

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph18052450 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (5) ◽

pp. 2450

Author(s):

Ashley K. Dores ◽

Gordon H. Fick ◽

Frank P. MacMaster ◽

Jeanne V. A. Williams ◽

Andrew G. M. Bulloch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Air Pollution ◽

Fine Particulate Matter ◽

Canadian Community Health Survey ◽

Population Based ◽

Cross Sectional Study ◽

Future Research ◽

Outdoor Air ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

Outdoor Air Pollution ◽

Environmental Health Research

To assess whether exposure to increased levels of outdoor air pollution is associated with psychological depression, six annual iterations of the Canadian Community Health Survey (n ≈ 127,050) were used to estimate the prevalence of a major depressive episode (2011–2014) or severity of depressive symptoms (2015–2016). Survey data were linked with outdoor air pollution data obtained from the Canadian Urban Environmental Health Research Consortium, with outdoor air pollution represented by fine particulate matter ≤2.5 micrometers (μm) in diameter (PM2.5), ozone (O3), sulfur dioxide (SO2), and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Log-binomial models were used to estimate the association between outdoor air pollution and depression, and included adjustment for age, sex, marital status, income, education, employment status, urban versus rural households, cigarette smoking, and chronic illness. No evidence of associations for either depression outcomes were found. Given the generally low levels of outdoor air pollution in Canada, these findings should be generalized with caution. It is possible that a meaningful association with major depression may be observed in regions of the world where the levels of outdoor air pollution are greater, or during high pollution events over brief time intervals. Future research is needed to replicate these findings and to further investigate these associations in other regions and populations.

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