Public Health Information Retrieval from Non-health Databases

This study examines the extent to which non-health databases index public health and healthcare related journals. The field of public health and healthcare is unique and multidisciplinary and therefore presents some challenges for researchers looking for published literature in the field. This challenge forces researchers to look beyond databases like Medline and search a wide array of databases in various fields. A list of journal titles from non-health databases in various fields was used to compare title coverage in Medline (Ovid). Databases used in this study are Canadian Business & Current Affairs (CBCA) Complete, which is a multidisciplinary database; ABI/Inform covering business literature; Public Affairs Information Services (PAIS); EconLit; PsycInfo focusing only on public health journals and eliminating psychology specific journals; Sociological Abstracts; and Women’s Studies international.