Health Communication & Information

This research guide covers a broad range of health communication and information research resources and supports the Master of Health Communication and Information (MHCI) and other programs offered through the School of Communication and Information.

Suggested Subject Keywords

The following is a short list of Library of Congress subject headings that will be helpful when performing a subject search on health communication.

Helpful Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) can be incorporated into your search strategy in combination with other keywords to increase precision and relevance. MeSH terms can be used in Medline databases such as PubMed and Ovid Medline.

Examples:

Health Behavior [Mesh] AND African Americans AND hypertension

Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice [Mesh] AND childhood obesity AND nutrition

Attitude to Health Public attitudes toward health, disease, and the medical care system.
Community Health Planning Planning that has the goals of improving health, improving accessibility to health services, and promoting efficiency in the provision of services and resources on a comprehensive basis for a whole community.
Epidemiologic Factors Events, characteristics, or other definable entities that have the potential to bring about a change in a health condition or other defined outcome.
Health Behavior Combination of HEALTH KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDES, PRACTICE which underlie actions taken by individuals regarding their health.
Healthcare Disparities Differences in access to or availability of medical facilities and services.
Health Communication The transfer of information from experts in the medical and public health fields to patients and the public. The study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health.
Health Education Education that increases the awareness and favorably influences the attitudes and knowledge relating to the improvement of health on a personal or community basis.
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice Knowledge, attitudes, and associated behaviors which pertain to health-related topics such as PATHOLOGIC PROCESSES or diseases, their prevention, and treatment. This term refers to non-health workers and health workers (HEALTH PERSONNEL).
Health Literacy Degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions.
Health Policy Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.
Health Promotion Encouraging consumer behaviors most likely to optimize health potentials (physical and psychosocial) through health information, preventive programs, and access to medical care.
Policy Making The decision process by which individuals, groups or institutions establish policies pertaining to plans, programs or procedures.
Primary Prevention Specific practices for the prevention of disease or mental disorders in susceptible individuals or populations. These include HEALTH PROMOTION, including mental health; protective procedures, such as COMMUNICABLE DISEASE CONTROL; and monitoring and regulation of ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTANTS. Primary prevention is to be distinguished from SECONDARY PREVENTION and TERTIARY PREVENTION.
Social Determinants of Health The circumstances in which people are born, grow up, live, work, and age, as well as the systems put in place to deal with illness. These circumstances are in turn shaped by a wider set of forces: economics, social policies, and politics (http://www.cdc.gov/socialdeterminants/).

Public Health Search Strategies

Click on the canned searches below. In PubMed, you can modify these search strategies by focusing on a specific demographic or geographical location.

Health Disparities: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/queries/health_disparities_details.html
Population Health: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/queries/population_health_strategy.html

This resource provides pre-formulated PubMed search strategies!

Searching the Literature: Databases

Because Health Communication draws from many different fields, it's important to search in multiple databases. Use the tabbed box to identify databases in Healthcare, Computer Science, Public Policy, Business, and more. Also, check out the databases included in the Related Research Guides. If you run into problems finding relevant research content, please contact a librarian!

CINAHL with Full Text
Provides comprehensive indexing of the nursing and allied health journal literature.
ClinicalKey
It includes clinical overviews, clinical trials, drug monographs, clinical guidelines, patient education handouts, images & multimedia, procedure videos, clinical calculators, and indexing and abstracts from the National Library of Medicine’s MEDLINE database.
PsycInfo
An index of scholarly literature in behavioral sciences and mental health fields. It is relevant to the study of psychology and related fields, such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
PubMed
PubMed’s primary focus is biomedicine and health sciences, but it also includes related fields such as life sciences, behavioral sciences, chemical sciences, and bioengineering.
TOXLINE
Major areas of coverage include: Air pollution, Antidotes, Biological and adverse effects of drugs, Carcinogenesis via chemicals, Chemically-induced diseases, Environmental chemicals and pollutants, Food additives, Genotoxicity, Hazardous materials, Health and safety, Human and animal toxicity, Industrial and household chemicals, Mutagenicity Pesticides and herbicides, Radioactive materials, Risk information.

ComAbstracts
It contains abstracts of articles and books published in the professional literature of the communication field and covers over one hundred journals.
Communication & Mass Media Complete
A database of scholarly literature on all aspects of communication studies, including discourse, linguistics, media studies, and rhetoric.

ACM Digital Library
These publications cover various fields related to computing, including software, hardware, computational theory, artificial intelligence, information science, human-computer interaction, instructional technology, and the research and development communities involved in computing.
DBLP Computer Science Bibliography
This server provides bibliographic information on major computer science journals and proceedings. DBLP indexes more than one million articles and contains more than 10,000 links to home pages of computer scientists.
IEEE Xplore
It covers more than 30% of the world's literature in electrical engineering, electronics, computer science, information science, materials science, physical sciences and biomedical engineering.

PAIS Index
PAIS Index provides coverage of public affairs, public and social policies, and international relations.
Policy File Index
A collection of public policy research reports from over 350 think tanks, nongovernmental organizations, research institutes, university centers, and advocacy groups. The primary focus of the collection is U.S. public policy, but it also includes many reports on international public policy as well as reports issued by international organizations.
Policy Map
PolicyMap is an online data and mapping application that provides access to over 10,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, income, crime, mortgages, health, jobs, and more.

Business Source Premier
For articles on all aspects of business: topics, companies or industries which may be in trade journals as well as scholarly peer reviewed journals.
Mintel
Offers demographic, product and industry market research reports covering US and international marketplaces which combine data and analysis of the competitive landscape, supply chain, market-share size and trends, and consumer profiles.

Academic Search Premier
Multi-disciplinary database with emphasis on scholarly publications and peer-reviewed journals. Full-text available for many titles.
ERIC - Education Resources Information Center
ERIC is a database of education research and information sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) of the U.S. Department of Education. Although the primary focus is the field of education, it indexes sources that intersect with the study of health communication.
ProQuest Social Science Premium Collection
This will search several databases provided by ProQuest simultaneously, e.g., PAIS Index, Social Services Abstracts, and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Systematic Reviews: Databases

What is a systematic review?
A systematic review attempts to identify, appraise and synthesize all the empirical evidence that meets pre-specified eligibility criteria to answer a specific research question. Researchers conducting systematic reviews use explicit, systematic methods that are selected with a view aimed at minimizing bias, to produce more reliable findings to inform decision making.

Health & Medicine

Cochrane Library
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, includes more than 4,650 reviews and 2,015 protocols which have been prepared by a highly credentialed group to determine if an intervention for a specific disease or other problem is effective.
Joanna Briggs Library
An international nonprofit organization that focuses on researching evidence-based healthcare.  
PROSPERO
An international registry for prospective systematic reviews.
Systematic Reviews for Animals & Food (SYREAF)
Repository for review protocols and systematic reviews in any area related to food, food production, food safety, animal health, and animal welfare. and animal.
TRIP Database
A searchable clinical research evidence library--allows searching by PICO.

Public Health & Social Sciences

3iE Database
For policymakers and researchers who are looking for evidence on what works, what doesn’t, and why in development. Their evidence hub includes a systematic review repository.
Campbell Collaboration
Focuses on reviews outside of clinical medicine.
The Community Guide
A free database of systematic reviews to help practitioners choose programs and policies to improve health and prevent disease in their community.
Epistemonikos
An evidence library for decisions in health care and health policy.
EPPI-Centre
The Evidence for Policy and Practice Information and Co-ordinating Centre (EPPI-Centre) conducts systematic reviews in the fields of Education, Health Promotion and Public Health, as well as social welfare and international development.
Health Evidence
SRs that evaluate the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of public health interventions, including cost data.

Related Research Guides

Communication
Computer Science
Evidence-Based Medicine Resources
Includes a tutorial on using MeSH in PubMed
Health Policy
Health Literacy
New PubMed

Grey Literature

The inclusion of grey literature and unpublished reports in literature reviews is encouraged, particularly in certain topic areas such as public health. However, as with any other study reports, it is necessary to critically evaluate grey literature materials for the authority of the source, any potential for bias, reliability and reproducibility of study methodology and completeness of reporting.

The following information types are all considered "grey literature."

Census, economic and other data sources

Conference proceedings and abstracts

Databases of ongoing research

Electronic networks (Listserv archives, etc.)

Informal communications (phone conversations, email, meetings, etc.)

Newsletters

Preprints of e-journal articles

Registered clinical trials

Research reports (completed and uncompleted)

Technical reports

Theses and Dissertations

Web log (blog)

White papers

Health Communication & Information

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