Global public health databases

Ian Walker

Content Expert, Science, Technology & Medicine

10th November 2011

Global Public Health Databases

Overview of presentation:

Sources of public health information

Importance of using specialist databases

Introducing the Global Health database

Introducing the Informit Health database

Other public health resources of interest

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Public health - a definition:

What is Public Health?

“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health through the organised efforts of society” (Sir Donald Acheson, Independent Inquiry Into Inequalities In Health, 1988)

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What is global public health?

• Global public health is public health which transcends boundaries

• Today we live in a more global, interconnected world

• Developed world is taking a renewed interest into the health of global populations

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Who are public health professionals? What are their information needs?

• Modern public health practice requires multidisciplinary teams of professionals, drawn from a diverse variety of backgrounds, including physicians, nurses, sociologists, engineers, health educators, community health workers, etc.

• Need for current and relevant information and also the need for global literature

• Public health literature comprises many varied sources, including, journal articles, books, grey literature etc.

• Traditional biomedical databases such as MEDLINE only partially meet the needs of public health researchers

Databases covering public health / global public available at the British Library:

In the next few slides we will focus on Global Health and Informit Health databases

Database Coverage

MEDLINE Biomedical literature

Global Health Public health research

CAB Abstracts Agriculture, environment, human health

Informit Health Allied health and nursing

EMBASE Biomedicine and pharmacology

CINAHL Nursing and allied Health

PsycINFO Behavioural sciences and mental health

Web of Science Sciences, social sciences

Global Health:

•Specialist bibliographic, abstracting and indexing database dedicated to public health research and practice.

•Contains over 1.2 million records from 1973 to present day. Over 100,000 records are added each year.

•Information is sourced from more than 5,000 serials, monographs, reports, conference proceedings, newsletters, patents, theses and other grey literature sources.

•Controlled vocabulary indexing. •Publications from over 150 countries in 50 languages are abstracted. 97% of records have an English abstract.

Global Health: International Coverage

Data from : ‘Global Health – Solving Local Problems With Global Information’ CABI, p.9.

Global Health: Subject Coverage:

• Global Health database covers the following aspects of human health and disease:

• Communicable diseases (including HIV/AIDS) • Tropical and Parasitic Diseases • Human Nutrition (including food composition, effects of diet on health) • Community Public Health • Social Medicine • Environmental and Occupational Health • Medicinal and Poisonous Plants

Global Health: Subject Coverage:

Biomedical and Life SciencesPhysiology

Medical Microbiology Food Science

Toxicity

Tropical and International HealthTropical Medicine

Traditional Medicine International Health

Public HealthCommunity Health Rural Health Refugee and Migrant HealthWomen’s Health

Health SystemsHealth Economics

Health Publicity and Planning

Health PromotionCommunity Health Programmes

Disease Prevention Disseminating Health Messages

Nutrition and Food SciencesPublic Health Nutrition

Clinical Nutrition

Environmental and occupational Health

Food safety and hygiene Sanitation and water supply

Infectious Diseases and Parasitology

Bacterial and Viral DiseasesMedical Entomology

Zoonotic Disease Veterinary Public Health

How is Global Health different to MEDLINE?

Why not simply use MEDLINE?

• Content of MEDLINE dominated by North American and European literature (GH is more global in its scope)

• MEDLINE only indexes journal articles and often only selectively indexes these journals (GH indexes journals but also non-serial sources such as reports, conference proceedings, book chapters, theses etc.)

• Subject matter – MEDLINE focuses on clinical and experimental medicine, biomedical science etc. (GH also focuses on public health, nutrition, food safety, etc.)

• Searching MEDLINE alone is not enough for public health information – need to search additional specialised databases to obtain comprehensive results.

• Aalai, E. et al. Accessing public health Information: a preliminary comparison of CABI’s GLOBAL HEALTH database and MEDLINE. Health Information and Libraries Journal, 2008. 26, 56-62

Global Health:

Data from : ‘Global Health – Solving Local Problems With Global Information ’ CABI, p.4.

Informit Health Collection:

•Full text database providing access to allied health and nursing content from Australia, New Zealand and the Asia Pacific region.

•Developed in response to growing demand for Australasian health information.

•Produced by RMIT Publishing – leading provider of scholarly Australasian publications.

•Replaced Meditext database in January 2010.

•Delivered through RMIT’s Informit platform.

•Department for Business Innovation and Skills ranked Australia in the top 10 countries performing health research in 2011

Informit Health Collection: subjects covered:

•Communicable diseases•Counselling•Geriatrics •Indigenous health •Mental illness •Neurology•Nursing •Pediatrics •Physiotherapy•Public health policy•Rehabilitation •Rural health •Traditional and alternative medicine

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Informit Health – content covered:

•Content includes Australian, New Zealand and Asia Pacific health journals, monographs, reports and case studies. Many of the titles included in the collection are not available online elsewhere.

•As of November 2011, Informit Health consists of :

o 138 journalso 22 monographs o 20 conference papers o ACOSS papers series (Australian Council of Social Sciences)

•Key journals include: Aboriginal Islander Health Worker Journal; After Abuse; Environmental Health; Health Information Management; Nursing.AUST

Other electronic sources of public health information:

China / Asia on Demand (CAOD): •Source of Chinese science, technology and medicine serials

•Public health titles include: Chinese Journal of Public Health; Chinese Journal of Public Health Management; Journal of Public Health and Preventative Medicine

•While there are English language articles and abstracts, most articles are only available in Chinese language

Springer eBooks:

•Access to over 5,000 titles from the biomedical & life sciences and medicine collections

•eBooks include : Encyclopedia of Public Health, Encyclopedia of Aging and Public Health, Public Health Policy and Ethics

In summary:

• Public health professionals need access to a wide range of sources and also access to global information

• Interdisciplinary nature of public health field means that no one database will cover all topics

• Extending range of inquiry outside of MEDLINE to other databases - such as Global Health - will help obtain more comprehensive results