Global public health databases- an overview of the content of major subscription services by Ian Walker, British Library.

1. Global Public Health Databases
Ian Walker
Content Expert, Science, Technology & Medicine
10th November 2011

2. Overview of presentation:
Sources of public health information
Importance of using specialist databases
Introducing the Global Health database
Introducing the Informit Health database
Other public health resources of interest
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3. Public health - a definition:
What is Public Health?
“The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life, and promoting health
through the organised efforts of society” (Sir Donald Acheson, Independent Inquiry
Into Inequalities In Health, 1988)
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4. What is global public health?
• Global public health is public health which transcends boundaries
• Today we live in a more global, interconnected world
• Developed world is taking a renewed interest into the health of global populations
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5. Who are public health professionals? What are their
information needs?
• Modern public health practice requires multidisciplinary teams of professionals,
drawn from a diverse variety of backgrounds, including physicians, nurses,
sociologists, engineers, health educators, community health workers, etc.
• Need for current and relevant information and also the need for global literature
• Public health literature comprises many varied sources, including, journal articles,
books, grey literature etc.
• Traditional biomedical databases such as MEDLINE only partially meet the needs
of public health researchers

6. Databases covering public health / global public available at
the British Library:
Database Coverage
MEDLINE Biomedical literature
Global Health Public health research
CAB Abstracts Agriculture, environment, human health
Informit Health Allied health and nursing
EMBASE Biomedicine and pharmacology
CINAHL Nursing and allied Health
PsycINFO Behavioural sciences and mental health
Web of Science Sciences, social sciences
In the next few slides we will focus on Global Health and
Informit Health databases

7. Global Health:
•Specialistbibliographic, abstracting and indexing
database dedicated to public health research and
practice.
•Containsover 1.2 million records from 1973 to present
day. Over 100,000 records are added each year.
•Informationis sourced from more than 5,000 serials, monographs, reports,
conference proceedings, newsletters, patents, theses and other grey literature
sources.
•Controlled vocabulary indexing.
•Publicationsfrom over 150 countries in 50 languages are abstracted. 97% of
records have an English abstract.

8. Global Health: International Coverage
Data from : ‘Global Health – Solving Local Problems With Global Information’ CABI, p.9.

9. Global Health: Subject Coverage:
• Global Health database covers the following aspects of human health and
disease:
• Communicable diseases (including HIV/AIDS)
• Tropical and Parasitic Diseases
• Human Nutrition (including food composition, effects of diet on health)
• Community Public Health
• Social Medicine
• Environmental and Occupational Health
• Medicinal and Poisonous Plants

10. Global Health: Subject Coverage:
Biomedical and Life Sciences Tropical and International Health
Physiology Tropical Medicine
Medical Microbiology Traditional Medicine
Food Science International Health
Toxicity
Public Health Health Systems
Community Health Health Economics
Rural Health Health Publicity and Planning
Refugee and Migrant Health
Women’s Health
Health Promotion Nutrition and Food Sciences
Community Health Programmes Public Health Nutrition
Disease Prevention Clinical Nutrition
Disseminating Health Messages
Environmental and occupational Infectious Diseases and
Health Parasitology
Food safety and hygiene Bacterial and Viral Diseases
Sanitation and water supply Medical Entomology
Zoonotic Disease
Veterinary Public Health

11. How is Global Health different to MEDLINE?
Why not simply use MEDLINE?
• Content of MEDLINE dominated by North American and European literature
(GH is more global in its scope)
• MEDLINE only indexes journal articles and often only selectively indexes these
journals (GH indexes journals but also non-serial sources such as reports, conference
proceedings, book chapters, theses etc.)
• Subject matter – MEDLINE focuses on clinical and experimental medicine,
biomedical science etc. (GH also focuses on public health, nutrition, food safety, etc.)
• Searching MEDLINE alone is not enough for public health information –
need to search additional specialised databases to obtain
comprehensive results.
• Aalai, E. et al. Accessing public health Information: a preliminary comparison
of CABI’s GLOBAL HEALTH database and MEDLINE. Health Information
and Libraries Journal, 2008. 26, 56-62

12. Global Health:
Data from : ‘Global Health – Solving Local Problems With Global Information’ CABI, p.4.

13. Informit Health Collection:
•Full
text database providing access to allied
health and nursing content from Australia, New
Zealand and the Asia Pacific region.
•Developed in response to growing demand for
Australasian health information.
•Produced by RMIT Publishing – leading provider of scholarly Australasian
publications.
•Replaced Meditext database in January 2010.
•Delivered through RMIT’s Informit platform.
•Department for Business Innovation and Skills ranked Australia in the top 10
countries performing health research in 2011

14. Informit Health Collection: subjects covered:
•Communicable diseases
•Counselling
•Geriatrics
•Indigenous health
•Mental illness
•Neurology
•Nursing
•Pediatrics
•Physiotherapy
•Public health policy
•Rehabilitation
•Rural health
•Traditional and alternative medicine http://www.flickr.com/photos/duncan/478984969/

15. Informit Health – content covered:
•Content includes Australian, New Zealand and Asia Pacific health journals,
monographs, reports and case studies. Many of the titles included in the collection
are not available online elsewhere.
•As of November 2011, Informit Health consists of :
o 138 journals
o 22 monographs
o 20 conference papers
o ACOSS papers series (Australian Council of Social Sciences)
•Key journals include: Aboriginal Islander Health Worker Journal; After Abuse;
Environmental Health; Health Information Management; Nursing.AUST

16. Other electronic sources of public health information:
China / Asia on Demand (CAOD):
•Source of Chinese science, technology and medicine serials
•Public health titles include: Chinese Journal of Public Health; Chinese Journal of
Public Health Management; Journal of Public Health and Preventative Medicine
•While there are English language articles and abstracts, most articles are only
available in Chinese language
Springer eBooks:
•Access to over 5,000 titles from the biomedical & life sciences and medicine
collections
•eBooks include : Encyclopedia of Public Health, Encyclopedia of Aging and Public
Health, Public Health Policy and Ethics

17. In summary:
• Public health professionals need access to a wide range of sources and
also access to global information
• Interdisciplinary nature of public health field means that no one database
will cover all topics
• Extending range of inquiry outside of MEDLINE to other databases - such
as Global Health - will help obtain more comprehensive results