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Retrieving articles on "etiology"
from MEDLINE
Here, we tackle the retrieval of article citations
on etiology of a disease - especially if there is a factor of "harm" ie., diseases
that strike because of environmental factors, or by adverse effects of therapeutic
drugs, etc. What we really need to retrieve is evidence that a disease IS caused
by a specific factor or a group of factors.
Let us consider an example
from the dental field. There has been a controversy about the use of fluorides
in toothpastes, and also addition of fluorides in water - to the effect of whether
these measures eventually cause fluorosis, and if so what levels of fluorides
are safe to use for therapeutic reasons.
The boolean combination you'd
use is:
1. fluorides/adverse effects OR fluorides/toxicity OR fluorides/poisoning
2. fluorosis/etiology OR fluorosis/chemically induced OR fluorosis/epidemiology
Modality of search
Click on Preview/Index, select MeSH
terms from the dropdown, type in fluorides in the search box, and then click on
Index. From the results, you'd choose fluorides/adverse effects, fluorides/poisoning
and fluorides/toxicity.(Keep the control key pressed, as you select these options).
Click on AND.
A search strategy:
("fluorides/adverse effects"[MeSH
Terms] OR "fluorides/poisoning"[MeSH Terms] OR "fluorides/toxicity"[MeSH Terms])
will appear in the search box at the top.
Next Click on Preview/Index,
select MeSH terms from the dropdown, type in fluorosis in the search box, and
then click on Index. From the results, you'd choose fluorosis/etiology, fluorosis/chemically
inducedand fluorosis/epidemiology.(Keep the control key pressed, as you select
these options). Click on AND.
A search strategy:
("fluorides/adverse
effects"[MeSH Terms] OR "fluorides/poisoning"[MeSH Terms] OR "fluorides/toxicity"[MeSH
Terms]) OR ("fluorosis, dental/chemically induced"[MeSH Terms] OR "fluorosis,
dental/epidemiology"[MeSH Terms] OR "fluorosis, dental/etiology"[MeSH Terms])
will appear in the search box at the top. Click on "Go". You get 2199 citations.
This
can be further refined by adding MeSH terms "risk factors" and "cohort studies"
with the above while searching. You then get fourteen focused citations.
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