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The Graduate Health & Life Sciences Research Library at Georgetown University Medical Center

Population Health Resources

Introduction: Searching for Population Health Literature

Find below some subject terms that may be assistive to you in your research. Please note that the term lists are not comprehensive. The following databases covered include Medline, the Global Health Database, Embase, and CINAHL. If you have questions regarding the research process, please feel free to Ask DML

Searching for Population Health Literature

  • Medline via Ovid
  • Medline via PubMed

Medical Subject Headings (MeSH Terms): 

  • Public Health    
    • Narrower Term: Preventive Medicine    
      •     Narrower Term: Environmental Medicine
      •     Narrower Term: Occupational Medicine
      •     Narrower Term: Preventive Psychiatry
    • Narrower Term: Epidemiology    
      •     Narrower Term: Molecular Epidemiology
      •     Narrower Term: Pharmacoepidemiology
  • "Quality of Health Care"    
    • Narrower Term: Clinical Competence    
    • Narrower Term: Guideline Adherence    
    • Narrower Term: Outcome and Process Assessment    
  • "Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation"    
    • Narrower Term: Delivery of Healthcare    
    • Narrower Term: Ethics    
    • Narrower Term: Health Services Research    
  • Health Status Indicators    
    • Narrower Term: APACHE    
  • Population Characteristics:    
    • Narrower Term: Demography    
    • Narrower Term: Health    
    • Narrower Term: Population     
    • Narrower Term: Socioeconomic Factors    
      •     Narrower Term: Educational Status
      •     Narrower Term: Employment
      •     Narrower Term: Family Characteristics 
      •     Narrower Term: Medical Indigency
      •     Narrower Term: Social Class
  • Social Determinants of Health    

​  Population Health Special Query: 

"The Population Health Special Query is a PubMed search of relevant MeSH headings and other text words combined by NLM staff to retrieve citations about health outcomes of a group of individuals, including the distribution of such outcomes within the group. MeSH headings were selected with the assistance of members of the National Academy of Medicine Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice staff and a member of the National Academy of Medicine Roundtable on Population Health Improvement."-NLM staff 

Learn more and view the terms of the query.

The Global Health database brings together the Public Health and Tropical Medicine (PHTM) database and the human health and diseases information extracted from CAB Abstracts. It covers the following aspects of human health and disease: communicable, tropical and parasitic diseases, human nutrition, community and public health, medicinal and poisonous plants, and more.

Subject Headings:

  • ​Community Health Services
  • Community Health
  • Community Involvement
  • Community Nutrition
  • Community Programs
  • Demography
  • Health Behaviour 
    • Used For Health Behavior
  • Health Beliefs
  • Health Care Costs
  • Health Education
  • Health Inequalities
    • Used For Health disparities
    • Used For Health disparity
  • Health Promotion
  • Health Protection
  • Health Services
  • Population Dynamics
    • Used For Population change
    • Used For Population distribution
  • Public Health
  • Public Health Legislation 
  • Public Health Services
  • Public Services
  • Quality
    • Used For Quality of Care
    • Used For Quality of Life
  • Screenings
  • Social Welfare
  • WHO 
  • Zoonoses

Cabi Codes:

  • EE118 Health Economics
  • EE120 Policy & Planning
  • UU100 Housing & Settlement
  • UU300 Public Services and Infrastructure
  • UU350 Health Services
  • VV000 Human Health & Hygiene
  • VV550 Diagnosis of Human Disease
  • VV720 Rural health

The Embase database, through Ovid, provides an index to international pharmacological and biomedical literature from around the world. 

Emtree (Subject Headings): 

  • Health Behavior
    • Narrower Term: Health belief
    • Narrower Term: Health belief Model
    • Narrower Term: Attitude to Health
    • Narrower Term: sleep hygiene
    • Narrower Term: drinking behavior
    • Narrower Term: smoking cessation 
  • Health Promotion 
    • Narrower term: Public Health Campaign
  • Health Status
    • Narrower Term: health disparity
    • Narrower Term: Social determinants of health
    • Narrower Term: functional status
  • Health Survey
    • Narrower Term: Health Status Indicator
  • Socioeconomics
    • Narrower Term: digital divide
    • Narrower Term: educational status
    • Narrower Term: income group
    • Narrower Term: Poverty
  • Social Medicine
    • Narrower Term: Public Health
      • Used For: Community Health
      • Used For: Community Health Program
      • Used For: International Health
      • Used For: National Health

The CINAHL database is comprised of information for the subjects of nursing and allied health.

CINAHL Headings:

  • ​Epidemiology    
  • Health & Disease    
    • Narrower Term: Health Status    
    • Narrower Term: Indigenous Health    
    • Narrower Term: Mental Health    
    • Narrower Term: Social Determinants of Health    
  • Health Education    
    • Narrower Term: HIV education    
    • Narrower Term: Nutrition Education    
    • Narrower Term: Health Transition     
  • Minority Groups    
    • Narrower Term: Social Capital    
    • Narrower Term: Social Control    
    • Narrower Term: Social Environment    
    • Narrower Term: Social Networks    
    • Narrower Term: Social Norms    
  • Population     
    • Narrower Terms: Demography    
    • Narrower Terms: Family Characteristics    
    • Narrower Term: Geographic Factors     
    • Narrower Terms: Race Factors    
    • Narrower Term: Sex Factors    
    • Narrower Term: Rural Population    
    • Narrower Term: Suburban Population    
    • Narrower Term: Urban Population     
  • Population Density    
  • Population Surveillance    
  • Preventive Healthcare    
    • Narrower Term: Public Health    
      • Narrower Term: Disease transmission
      •     Narrower Term: Environmental Pollution
      •     Narrower Term: Exposure to Violence
      •     Narrower Term: Epidemiology
      •     Narrower Term: Food Quality
      •     Narrower Term: Health Education
      •     Narrower Term: Health Transition