Search Strategies: Causation/Harm/Etiology
Return to Main Page
Overview of Search Strategies

Quick Search Strategy
Quality Search Strategy

Quick Search Strategy: Type in your search terms; combine the separate lines with AND or OR, and then apply one of the following (note: these terms have only been used in Medline as Keywords since 1986):

Best one-term strategy:

• Use risk as a Title Word search term.

Maximum sensitivity strategy:

• Use cohort studies as a Keyword  search term, or
• use risk as a Keyword  search term, or
• use odds AND ratio$ as a Title Word search string, or
• Use relative AND risk as a Title Word search string, or
• Use case AND control$ as a Title Word search string.

Maximum specificity strategy:

• Use case control studies as a Keyword  search term, or
• use cohort studies as a Keyword  search term.

Back to top

Quality Search Strategy:   The following "hedge", or standardized search strategy, creates a large set of high validity articles on diagnosis. It may take several minutes to run on Medline.   Note: $ is the truncation symbol on OVID databases.

1. exp probability
2. (risk$ or cohort$ or follow-up or predict$ or case-control$).ti,ab,sh.
3. (cause$ or causat$ or causing or causal$ or etiol$ or aetiol$).ti,ab,sh.
4. exp case-control studies
5. 1 or 2 or 3 or 4

Save this strategy as an expert search.

After entering the hedge, you can search for the suggested source of harm.  For maximum sensitivity, use "all subheadings".  For more specificity, use one or more of the following subheadings:  

• Adverse Effects (AE)
• Mortality (MO) (not always an option)
• Contraindications (CT)
• Poisoning (PO)
• Toxicity (TO)

Alternatively you can search for the relevant disorder or anticipated outcome.  For maximum sensitivity, use "all subheadings", but note that without the subheadings, this search strategy may yield articles on therapy or prognosis rather than harm.  For more specificity, use one or more of the following subheadings:

• Abnormalities (AB)
• Chemically Induced (CI)
• Epidemiology (EP)
• Etiology (ET)
• Mortality (MO)
• Transmission (TM)

After entering the search terms, combine the result with the set generated by the hedge using the Boolean operator "AND".

Back to top
Return to Main Page