Search strings for the study of putative occupational determinants of disease

TLDR

The study aimed to develop efficient PubMed search strategies for locating articles on occupational determinants of diseases not typically considered work‑related. Using MeSH definitions and expert input, the authors selected candidate terms, examined overlaps, estimated relevance via random abstract samples, and devised two search strategies—one specific and one sensitive—tested on meningioma, pancreatitis, and atrial fibrillation. The specific strategy yielded 40 % relevant abstracts and required reading 1.2–1.9 abstracts per relevant article, while the sensitive strategy required 4.4–10.5 reads, demonstrating that the proposed strings can aid clinicians in exploring occupational causes of non‑work‑related diseases.

Abstract

Objective To identify efficient PubMed search strategies to retrieve articles regarding putative occupational determinants of conditions not generally considered to be work related. Methods Based on MeSH definitions and expert knowledge, we selected as candidate search terms the four MeSH terms describing ‘occupational disease’, ‘occupational exposure’, ‘occupational health’ and ‘occupational medicine’ (DEHM) alongside 22 other promising terms. We first explored overlaps between the candidate terms in PubMed. Using random samples of abstracts retrieved by each term, we estimated the proportions of articles containing potentially pertinent information regarding occupational aetiology in order to formulate two search strategies (one more ‘specific’, one more ‘sensitive’). We applied these strategies to retrieve information on the possible occupational aetiology of meningioma, pancreatitis and atrial fibrillation. Results Only 20.3% of abstracts were retrieved by more than one DEHM term. The more ‘specific’ search string was based on the combination of terms that yielded the highest proportion (40%) of potentially pertinent abstracts. The more ‘sensitive’ string was based on the use of broader search fields and additional coverage provided by other search terms under study. Using the specific string, the numbers of abstracts needed to read to find one potentially pertinent article were 1.2 for meningioma, 1.9 for pancreatitis and 1.8 for atrial fibrillation. Using the sensitive strategy, the numbers needed to read were 4.4 for meningioma, 8.9 for pancreatitis and 10.5 for atrial fibrillation. Conclusions The proposed strings could help health care professionals explore putative occupational aetiology for diseases that are not generally thought to be work related.