Abstract
Objective:There are no existing validated search filters for the group of 37 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This study describes how information specialists from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) developed and evaluated novel OECD countries’ geographic search filters for MEDLINE and Embase (Ovid) to improve literature search effectiveness for evidence about OECD countries.Methods:We created the draft filters using an alternative approach to standard filter construction. They are composed entirely of geographic subject headings and are designed to retain OECD country evidence by excluding non-OECD country evidence using the NOT Boolean operator. To evaluate the draft filters’ effectiveness, we used MEDLINE and Embase literature searches for three NICE guidelines that retrieved >5,000 search results. A 10% sample of the excluded references was screened to check that OECD country evidence was not inadvertently excluded.Results:The draft MEDLINE filter reduced results for each NICE guideline by 9.5% to 12.9%. In Embase, search results were reduced by 10.7% to 14%. Of the sample references, 7 of 910 (0.8%) were excluded inadvertently. These references were from a guideline about looked-after minors that concerns both OECD and non-OECD countries.Conclusion:The draft filters look promising—they reduced search result volumes while retaining most OECD country evidence from MEDLINE and Embase. However, we advise caution when using them in topics about both non-OECD and OECD countries. We have created final versions of the search filters and will validate them in a future study.
Highlights
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and OECD country evidenceThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international agency that works in collaboration with member countries to develop policies for the reduction of inequality and poverty in all nations [1]
We examined 450 database records from the 4,440 excluded MEDLINE results, and no records about OECD countries were identified for NICE guidelines 1 and 3 (Table 1)
We examined 460 database records from the 4,476 excluded Embase results, and no records about OECD countries were identified for NICE guidelines 1 and 3 (Table 2)
Summary
NICE and OECD country evidenceThe Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international agency that works in collaboration with member countries to develop policies for the reduction of inequality and poverty in all nations [1]. There are currently 37 OECD country members (Figure 1). The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the United Kingdom (U.K.) produces evidencebased national guidance and advice with the aim of improving health and social care [3]. The guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations on preventing or managing specific conditions and on planning services and interventions to improve the health of communities [3]. They are used to advise health and social care professionals on how to manage people in their care and deliver services. Evidence about the U.K. and similar countries is often required to inform NICE guideline recommendations. OECD countries are often used as a proxy for countries with similarities to the U.K. [4,5,6,7,8]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
