Environmental Scan of Instruments to Inform Consumer Choice in Assisted Living Facilities (continued)

Appendix B. Detailed Description of Databases Searched with Results

MEDLINE, produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), is one of the major sources for biomedical literature. MEDLINE indexes international literature in medicine, dentistry, and nursing. It uses NLM's controlled vocabulary, MeSH (Medical Subject Headings). Approximately 400,000 records are added yearly, with more than 85 percent in English.

Combined Health Information Database (CHID) is a bibliographic database produced by health-related agencies of the Federal Government. CHID provides a wealth of health information, promotion and education materials, and program descriptions that are not indexed elsewhere.

CINAHL is a comprehensive and authoritative source of information for nurses, allied health professionals, and others interested in health care. CINAHL covers all aspects of nursing and 17 allied health disciplines. Journals from biomedicine, alternative therapy, health sciences, health promotion, and consumer health are included.

Current Index to Statistics (CIS) is a bibliographic index to publications in statistics and related fields. References are drawn from 111 core journals that are fully indexed, noncore journals with articles related to statistics, proceedings, and edited books.

Health and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) provides descriptions of measurement instruments (e.g., questionnaires, rating scales, tests, index measures, coding schemes, checklists) in the fields of public health, psychology, communication, human resources, medicine, sociology, gerontology, and others. Although HAPI does not contain the actual instruments, it frequently includes information about the source of the instruments. HAPI is updated quarterly.

AgeLine is produced by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and provides bibliographic coverage of social gerontology – the study of aging in social, psychological, health-related, and economic contexts. The delivery of health care for the older population and its associated costs and policies is particularly well covered, as are public policy, employment, and consumer issues.

PsycFIRST is a subset of the American Psychological Association's PsycINFO database. It provides abstracts to a full range (academic, research, and practice) of psychology literature. Related fields such as social science, organizational behavior, and research methodology are included. The material represents substantive articles from 1,300 international journals and reports as well as book chapters and dissertations.

Wilson Social Science Abstracts provides comprehensive abstracting and indexing of more than 415 core English-language periodicals published in the United States and elsewhere. Coverage includes a wide range of interdisciplinary fields covered in a broad array of social sciences journals. Detailed abstracts describe the content and scope of the source articles.

PSYCLINE indexes more than 2,000 online psychology and social science journals via its Journal Locator and provides access to article databases in psychology via Article Locator. Journal Locator allows the user to find existing journals in a field and browse tables of contents and abstracts. Article Locator offers an interface to table of content and abstracts databases that are maintained by journal publishers or other organizations, not by PSYCLINE. Note: Librarian was able to gain access to only two of the six Article Locator databases, Medline and Kluwer. She had previously searched Medline via the National Library of Medicine web site, with no resulting hits when searching for "assisted living" articles in Kluwer. She noted that she had access to many journals covered in Blackwell, Elsevier, and APA when she searched the other databases chronicled here.

Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition provides more than 550 scholarly full text journals, including nearly 450 peer-reviewed journals focusing on many medical disciplines. Also featured are abstracts and indexing for more than 800 journals. Coverage of nursing, allied health and clinical pharmacology is particularly strong.

Sage Database of Social Research Methodology (SRM) includes more than 45,000 references, most with abstracts, to the literature on social and behavioral research methodology, statistical analysis, and computer software. International in scope, the SRM Database includes journal articles, books, research reports, and proceedings from 1970 to the present with 10 updates a year.

PAIS International, the database of the Public Affairs Information Service, covers the full range of the social sciences, with emphasis on contemporary public issues and the making and evaluating public policy.

Business and Management Practices contains online articles about the practical aspects of business management. Provides real-world know-how that focuses on how organizations make and implement decisions, develop and launch new strategies, and plan for change. Database includes case studies and how-to articles. Searches for business concepts, industries, and specific departments within an organization.

Search Results

Assisted Living/Home Health/Residential Care Search Strategy

MESH = Medical Subject Heading; MAJR = Major Medical Subject Heading;
SH = Subject Heading

Note: Because of the mental health orientation of the PsychInfo database, the keywords group home, halfway houses, supportive housing, etc. were not used when searching this database. When the terms were used, they yielded too many irrelevant hits.

Return to Contents

AHRQ Publication No. 07-0032-EF
December 2006

Internet Citation:

Environmental Scan of Instruments to Inform Consumer Choice in Assisted Living Facilities. AHRQ Publication No. 07-0032-EF, December 2006. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD. http://www.ahrq.gov/research/ltcscan/

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