On Doctoring MEDLINE searches, with reference librarian comments, March 2000

The question was

The patient care problem to look at: Seeing young boys in clinic who are severely overweight/obese and have developed non-insulin dependent diabetes (type II). What is the prevalence of this condition among young people (boys and girls), risk factors, and effective treatment/management options?

1     *Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent/ or "type ii    results= 10751   
diabetes".mp. 2     limit 1 to (english language and yr=1991-2000)    results= 9128   
3     *Obesity/ or "juvenile obesity".mp.    results= 8658   
4     limit 3 to (english language and yr=1991-2000)    results= 7541   
5     limit 1 to (human and english language and (child < 6 to 12    results= 595   
years > or adolescence < 13 to 18 years >) and english and yr=1991-2000)
6     limit 3 to (human and english language and (child < 6 to 12    results= 1512   
years > or adolescence < 13 to 18 years >) and english and yr=1991-2000)

Reference Librarian comments

Shall we agree this search didn't really work for you? You correctly used the MeSH (medical subject headings), and various "limits" -- but surely you don't want to look through 1512 references. In the Ovid system, it is best to "explode" the subject-headings, and also -- pick only ONE of the subject headings that comes up in the 'mapping' display. If you pick more than one, you never get to the subheadings display, a powerful area where you can better limit your search to what you really want.

Also (... I'm re-reading how you articulated the question ...) I like to do separate searches for the distinct questions. Prevalence and risk-factors is one search. Treatment is another.

Just for fun, I'll try my hand at the treatment aspects. Here is a strategy:

 Medline 1991 to February 2000

    #
                                      Search History
                                                                                         Results
1
exp *Diabetes mellitus, non-insulin-dependent/dt,dh,pc
1887

2
limit 1 to (child < 6 to 12 years > or adolescence < 13 to 18 years >)
58

3
 limit 2 to (human and english language)
46