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Table 3 Sex-specific search filter (SSS filter) for MEDLINE for use with the OvidSP™ interface

From: Locating sex-specific evidence on clinical questions in MEDLINE: a search filter for use on OvidSP™

 

Search termsa

#1

(gender$ or sex$).af.

#2

(boys or girls).tw.

#3

(women or men).ti.

#4

(male$1 or female$1).ti.

#5

(women or men).ab./freq=4

#6

(male$1 or female$1).ab./freq=4

#7

(women adj8 men).ab.

#8

(female$1 adj8 male$1).ab.

#9

or/1–8

 

The filter can be combined with a disease or other topic by adding search commands for the disease or topic and combining these commands with the SSS filter by using the Boolean operator 'AND'.

 

We recommend to do a search in the leading clinical journals on women's health in addition to a search with the SSS filter as described above. The following Ovid search terms for journals can be used: gender medicine.jn., journal of womens health.jn., journal of womens health & gender based medicine.jn. in combination with the disease or topic in question.

  1. a The affixes indicate the location in which a specific word is searched for: ab = abstract; af = all fields (the affix is used to cover a search in titles, abstracts and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)); ti = title; tw = (text word in) title or abstract. The additional command freq 4 means in a frequency of four times or more. The command adj8 between two words means that the second word should occur within eight words of the first word. The order of the words does not count; the first word can precede the second or the second the first. Practically, the two words are parted by seven other words at the most.