Case:
You are developing a health promotion, disease prevention initiative within the CUMC neighborhood. Your team’s special interest is in diabetes. You decide to investigate resources available at the Knowledge Center and the Augustus C. Long Health Sciences Library to help create a program tailored to serve the population within Washington Heights.
Objective:
To optimize work within a community, it is important to learn as much as possible about the population of interest.
- Learn about the quantitative indicators of your population or the demographics such as age, education level, income, household characteristics, etc.
- Learn about the qualitative indicators of your population such as religious beliefs, parenting, eating habits, culture, environment etc.
- Investigate the medical and clinical issues within your population by researching topics such as chronic disease, mental health, nutrition, child development, aging etc.
Method:
Some statistical resources would be useful to gather ‘quantitative’ indicators of the population of interest, for example:
- InfoShare: http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?ATT6078
- Epiquery: https://a816-healthpsi.nyc.gov/epiquery/
- ProQuest Statistical Insight http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?APK8288
- OECD iLibrary http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?ATE7614
- More statistical resources can be found through a CLIO search for >databases>statistical resources; CLIO: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog
For Example: Identify some demographics about the population living within the CUMC neighborhood. Here, InfoShare will be a useful resource as it provides data from the 2010 census. Searches can be filtered or limited to the zip code 10032. Within this zip code, we find the following population characteristics: Hispanic/Latino population is 69% Non-Hispanic population is 31% Within the Hispanic population, 41.9% are Dominicans (based on the 2010 census) Note: InfoShare can also be used to search for other data such as household characteristics, income, race, age groups, etc.
|
Investigate the qualitative characteristics of a population (such as religious beliefs, parenting, eating habits, culture, etc.) by searching databases such as:
- Family and Society Studies Worldwide http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio4814756
- Social Sciences Full Text http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio4815156
- PsycINFO http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?ALD2284
- Web of Science http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio10620670
- More social sciences database can be found at CLIO>Databases>Social Sciences. CLIO: https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog
For Example: Learn about the population of interest by searching for topics in the social sciences; below is a citation from the database Social Sciences Full text. Influences on Food Away from Home, Feeding Practices Among English and Spanish Speaking Parent-Child Dyads. Pinard C, Byker C, Harden SM et al Journal of Child & Family Studies; Jul 2015, Vol. 24 issue 7, p:2099-2106 Search strategy: (Hispanic Americans OR Dominicans OR Latin Americans) AND (Food OR Nutrition) AND Acculturation |
Investigate the medical and clinical issues within the population of interest by searching the health sciences databases. Select the following databases to research topics such as mental health, clinical medicine, delivery of healthcare, emergency medical services, etc. (Please note, there is considerable interdisciplinary overlap between the social sciences and the clinical and medical literature).
- PubMed http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio4373446
- PsycINFO http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?ALD2284
- Embase http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio10876993
- CINAHL (Cumulative Index Nursing and Allied Health Literature) http://www.columbia.edu/cgi-bin/cul/resolve?clio6981250
- More health sciences databases can be found at CLIO>Databases>Health Sciences. CLIO https://clio.columbia.edu/catalog
For Example: Below is a citation from a PubMed search on a medical topic regarding diabetes and healthcare delivery among the population of interest. A regional health collaborative formed by New York-Presbyterian aims to improve the health of a largely Hispanic community. Carrillo JE, Shekhani NS, Deland EL et al. Health Affairs (Millwood). Oct 2011; Vol. 30 issue 10, p:1955-64. Search strategy: Hispanic Americans AND New York City AND (healthcare disparities OR disease management) |
Study Designs
Depending upon the focus of the research or the type of question being asked, study designs can be an important component of the research methodology. Study design terms may also be incorporated into a search strategy. Use the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) term ‘Epidemiologic Studies’ to search for a study design of interest. The MeSH database can be searched at this link: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mesh
Below is a display of some terms that map to the concept of Epidemiologic Studies. Subject terms from this list may be incorporated into the search strategy.
Epidemiologic Studies
Case-Control Studies
Retrospective Studies
Cohort Studies
Follow-Up Studies
Longitudinal Studies +
Prospective Studies
Retrospective Studies
Controlled Before-After Studies
Cross-Sectional Studies
Historically Controlled Study
Interrupted Time Series Analysis
Seroepidemiologic Studies
HIV Seroprevalence
Learn more about study design from the Center for Evidence Based Medicine at the link: http://www.cebm.net/index.aspx?o=1039
Conclusion:
By searching the databases and using relevant tools available to us, we can build on our knowledge about the Hispanic population and diabetes. This will help us to create informed, research based healthcare programs for this community.
Additional Information:
Learn how to obtain materials, including full text of documents
- If e-link doesn’t work: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/how-get-resources-other-libraries
- Locate the full-text of articles with Columbia e-link: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/understanding-elink
- Request from Offsite
- Intercampus delivery
- Interlibrary Loan / Borrow Direct
Locate additional research assistance from the HSL homepage
- Visit the Health Sciences Library’s Homepage at: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/
- Select links under ‘Ask a Question’ section to:
- Get an email response: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/ask-question
- Drop in during on-call hours: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/calendar
- Reserve time with an informationist: http://library.cumc.columbia.edu/informationist-availability
Recent Comments