HED 2340 - Health Behaviors: Home

Definitions

Use Search Engine to Find Statistics 

Note: Adding site:.gov after your search terms in a search engine will limit your results to sites that have a government domain.

Example searches:

breast cancer incidence United States site:.gov

breast cancer prevalence United States site:.gov

breast cancer new cases United States site:.gov

breast cancer statistics United States site:.gov

Browse Reputable Health Statistics Sites

Find Statistics in Research Articles

Although statistics about the incidence and prevalence of conditions or diseases are usually readily available on web sites, research articles often provide statistics about conditions and diseases too.  Use the same article databases linked under Peer-Reviewed theory-based research below, but look for the word epidemiology or statistics or numerical data as one of the subjects.  You can use the drop down menu in most databases to specify SU Subject.  When you run your searches, the article subjects will be listed under the article citation or the page that displays the article abstract.

2. Find review articles about the condition or behavior to get an overview and why the condition or behavior is important.

CINAHL, The Cumulative Index for Nursing and Allied Health Literature, is often a good place to find healthcare review articles.

There are many different types of review articles.  The Publication Type limiter "Review" in CINAHL finds the overview type of review articles. These reviews do NOT report new original research, but they usually provide a broader summary of what is known about the topic based on  healthcare literature.  To limit to review articles in CINAHL, click the “show more” option under the year slider to the left of your search results, shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1

In the resulting pop-up box, choose “Review” from the drop down menu labelled “Publication type”, then click the “search” button to apply the limiter, as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2

Database search tips:

• Combine the name of your condition/problem with the name of your theory using AND
• Do NOT use quotation marks: If there is no exact match for the theory you type in, the search may still retrieve other theories that are relevant and useful. Quotation marks search for the exact phrase so you may not get enough results if you use quotation marks.
• Having trouble?  I'm here to help.  Please email me to ask questions or use the "Schedule Appointment" link on this guide to set up a meeting with me through Webex.

Search Engines and Databases for Finding Articles:

Note: Journals can vary widely in quality.  Always evaluate both the journal and the content of the article in the journal you are using.   If you have questions about how to determine if the content you are using is reputable, ask Ximena.