LITERATURE RESEARCH FOR HEALTH

Note: this information can be used as a hand-out (use the URL's provided) or a webpage (click on the blue links).

Reference books give background, definition, context and factual information. Browse COCC's reference collection (on the first floor) in the W's for resources on clinical medicine and in the R's for resources on popular medicine. Often printed reference encyclopedias can provide essential background information on a health-related topic MUCH faster than an online resource or website can.

General statistics for health related fields can be found in the U.S. Statistical Abstract at REF HA202 .U5. Some of these stats may be found online at:
http://www.census.gov/statab/www/brief.html.

Also go to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention at
http://www.cdc.gov/ and look for the link to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the primary US agency for vital and health statistics.

Medline Plus Website
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
Includes online medical encyclopedia, medical dictionary, recent health news and other resources.

Harvard World Health News
http://www.worldhealthnews.harvard.edu/
World Health News is an online news digest produced by the Center for Health Communication at the Harvard School of Public Health. Covering critical public health issues, it is an excellent resource for readers who are interested in public health and related issues. Drawing on newspapers and magazines, the site offers a digest of news and information with links to the complete story.

Center for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdc.gov/
Look for the link to the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is the primary US agency for vital and health statistics.

Use the Orbis/SUMMIT Union Catalog to search other NorthWest college/university libraries, including OHSU (Oregon Health Sciences University)! Orbis/SUMMIT books can be delivered to COCC within approximately 48 hours.

Catalog Search Hints

use word search
use * to locate endings to words (truncation)
use boolean commands (nicotine or smok*) and pregnan*
keep searches fairly general

then use the pull down box titled "Select by subject" to choose "Health Sciences" to access the following resources:

EBSCO Cumulative Nursing and Allied Health Index
This database provides primarily citations to professional nursing literature. Some full text may be available.

EBSCO Academic Search Elite
This database is a general academic database and provides about 60% full text.

EBSCO HealthSource Nursing
Provides nearly 520 scholarly full text journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for over 550 journals.

Ebsco HealthSource Consumer Edition
Provides full text for nearly 280 health periodicals, over 1,100 health pamphlets, and 20 health reference books.

National Library of Medicine's MEDLINEplus .
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/
An impressive site maintained free of charge for educational purposes only and updated regularly, MEDLINEplus allows a wide audience of users from laypersons to professionals access to selected, quality, authoritative health information. Primary emphasis is placed on material from the well-respected National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

PubMed
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/
MEDLINE, an extensive database of citations to journal articles maintained by the National Library of Medicine, has long been a valuable resource for those interested in topics related to medicine and biochemistry.

BioMedNet
http://www.biomednet.com/
After registering for free, the user can perform searches on BioMedNet's full-text library of 170 biological journals. Also available are Evaluated MEDLINE and BioMedLink. Both of these powerful search engines canvass databases of the most common international biological and medical journals. Only the abstracts from MEDLINE and
BioMedLink are available for no cost.

CAM citation index by the Office of Alternative Medicine (OAM)
http://nccam.nih.gov/htdig/search.html
The CAM Citation Index (Complementary and Alternative Medicine) consists of a bibliographic database of more than 90,000 citations to journal articles, 1963-79. Is is now part of PubMed and is maintained by the National Library of Medicine.

Database Search Hints

start with keyword searching when available
use " " for phrases
use * to locate endings to words (truncation)
use boolean commands (nicotine or smok*) and pregnan*
searches can be specific
full text articles may be e-mailed, downloaded or printed from the screen.
other articles may be located in the COCC or St. Charles library, or may be ordered via inter-library loan.

Some OSU Library resources may be available to you. Go to the OSU Valley Library website at http://osulibrary.orst.edu/. You will have to access Valley Library databases from COCC Library workstations.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
http://www.cdcnpin.org/
Provides information about HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and tuberculosis (TB) for individuals and organizations working in prevention, health care, research, and
support services.

Healthfinder
http://www.healthfinder.gov/
Healthfinder is a Web site with an extensive searchable database of reliable online health publications, clearinghouses, Web sites, self-help groups, government agencies, academic centers, and nonprofit agencies. This is a gateway site developed and maintained by the US Government's DHHS Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, guaranteeing the authority and expertise of the authors. It contains a wide variety of consumer health information with well organized links to more than 550 Web sites and 500 selected documents as well as frequently asked health questions.

Be careful! There is a lot of false, misleading, anecdotal, poorly researched "medical" information out there on the web! Look for web addresses which contain domain names .gov or .edu. Pay attention to who is creating and/or sponsoring the webpage in question. Is it an institution you know and trust? Is the information current? (Look for a date.) Is it research based and authoritative? (Look for footnotes).