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Video ViewAttendees 55

Paper: Research Abstract

Innovation & Research Practice

On Demand

Session: Clinical Support Papers 1

Search Filters Designed to Identify Black Persons Living in the United States

Thursday, May 18, 2023
9:30 AM – 9:45 AM EDT
Location: 252A
Objectives: Increasingly searchers need to limit their searches to specific populations. This has traditionally been difficult due to the existence of a wide array of synonyms and changes in terms over time. This is especially evident in the terms associated with Black Persons Living in the United States (BPLiUS), i.e., US-born Black Americans and US immigrants of African or Caribbean ancestry. To increase the efficiency, reliability, and inclusivity of population searches we will create and validate search filters for biomedical and health sciences-related information on BPLiUS populations in Ovid MEDLINE and PubMed.

Methods: We will use a handsearch method to create our gold standard citation set. To gather the most representative citation sample we will draw from Black-focused journals along with journals in the following categories: race/ethnicity-focused, high impact/large audience general medical journals, clinical/health systems, anthropological/cultural/psychosocial/genetics, and lastly regional/state medical society journals published in areas with large Black populations. To capture the breadth and depth of explicit and implicit Black ethnonym terms over time we will sample citations in the above categories in twenty year increments, i.e., 1955 (Jim Crow era); 1975 (Civil Rights era); 1995 (African-American era); 2015 (People of Color era); and 2021 (BIPOC era) to capture more recent language. To identify subject terms, keyword terms and phrases, we will use the following methods: text-mine Black-focused journal citations using the AntConc software; consult the National Library of Medicine MeSH database; identify extant example search filters; review published systematic review search strategies, etc. The gold standard set will be divided into test and validation sets. The filters will be internally and externally validated. We will predetermine target sensitivity/precision.

Results: We will report on our novel search filter methodology and progress to date on testing our filters.