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Michigan State University

Minority Health Resources: MSU Databases

Introduction

MSU Libraries subscribes to many databases which could be used to find minority health resources. We have selected a few of the most commonly used databases below and identified some basic minority health search strategies. To find more databases please use the libraries Electronic Resources: Databases' page.

*TIP* the databases listed below (except PolicyMap) and the associated search strategies use Boolean Logic (AND, NOT, OR) to combine concepts when searching. A primer on Boolean Logic can be found at the National Library of Medicine: https://www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/disted/pubmedtutorial/020_350.html

Many databases also use controlled vocabularies to increase the precision of searches. Using these vocabularies in combination with keywords will make your searches more relevant.

If you are working on a specific minority health research question or need help searching a database please contact a health sciences librarian for further assistance (contact information on this guide's "Intro" tab).

MSU Databases

Because of the breadth of the topic, minority health can be difficult to search for in PubMed with precision. The National Library of Medicine has developed a relatively comprehensive search strategy for health disparities and minority health research in PubMed: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/queries/health_disparities_details.html

A short, general search one could perform is:

(health status disparities [MH] OR health status disaprit*[TIAB] OR healthcare disparities [MH] OR healthcare disparities [TIAB] OR healthcare disparity [TIAB] OR minority health [MH] OR minority health [TIAB])

Use AND to combine this string with specific population and/or condition keywords and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) to narrow the search

One broad search string in Embase with keywords and Emtree Headings could be:

('social determinants of health'/exp OR 'minority health'/exp OR 'minority health' OR 'health disparity'/exp OR health AND dispar* OR 'health care disparity'/exp)

Using AND combine that search string with specific population or condition keywords and Emtree Headings to narrow the search.

A broad search string for CINAHL using both keywords (TX) and CINAHL Headings (MH) could be:

(MH "Healthcare Disparities") OR (MH "Health Status Disparities") OR (TX "health disparit*") OR (TX "minority health")

Using AND combine that search string with specific population or condition keywords and CINAHL Headings to narrow the search.