The biomedical literature concerning alcohol is huge. The National Library
of Medicine's MEDLINE/PubMed
database of this literature is exquistely indexed, a key feature of which
is Medical Subject Headings (MeSH). MeSH are essential for constucting
targeted seaches about alcohol-related issues. Here are a few useful MeSH
for alcohol-related searches (for more information, look in the MeSH
Database):
alcohol
drinking - Behaviors associated with the ingesting of alcoholic
beverages, including social drinking. (Year introduced: 1969) [note:
alcohol-related outcomes are dependent upon how people drink, so this
is an important aspect of the literature that might inform SF's mortality
analyses]
Examples (The strategies that follow the questions can but copied
into PubMed's search box):
1. What do we know about the epidemiology of drinking in the United
States (making this the main subject of the papers)?
"alcohol
drinking/epidemiology"[MAJR] AND "united states"[MeSH]
2. What do we know about Latino drinking?
"alcohol drinking"[mesh] AND "hispanic americans"[mesh]
3. Is there a literature that includes information about alcohol
use in San Francisco?
"alcohol drinking"[mesh] AND "san francisco"[mesh]
4. Does the experience of racism cause people to drink heavily?
"prejudice"[mesh] AND "alcohol drinking"[mesh]
alcoholism
Examples (The strategies that follow the questions can but copied
into PubMed's search box):
1. What do we know about alcoholism among Latinos or African Americans?
"hispanic americans"[mesh] OR "african americans"[mesh]
AND "alcoholism"[mesh]
2. Do socioeconomic factors affect alcoholism among Latinos or blacks?
"hispanic americans"[mesh] OR "african americans"[mesh]
AND "socioeconomic factors"[mesh] AND "alcoholism"[mesh]
alcoholic
beverages - Drinkable liquids containing ETHANOL.
Example: Is anything known about how alcoholic beverages are used
by African Americans (a group with disproportionate alcohol-related
burden in SF)?
"african americans"[mesh] AND "alcoholic beverages"[mesh]
alcohol-related
disorders - Disorders related to or resulting from abuse or mis-use
of alcohol. (Year introduced: 1998) [note: broader than alcohol-induced
disorders]
key words - The use of "key words" can lead
to too many results and well as the obvious problems of non-specificity.
But there are some useful words/phrases. The National Alcohol Survey
is a particlarly good resource for information on drinking and drinking
consequences in the U.S. Try copying and pasting (with quotes) "national
alcohol survey" into PubMed's search box.
