Database Digest

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism produces the Alcohol and Alcohol Problems Science Database, commonly referred to as ETOH. Despite the title’s focus on alcohol, ETOH’s scope is quite broad. Medicine, epidemiology, psychology, transportation, public policy, and sociology are just a few of the subject areas relevant to the study of alcohol and all are represented among the records in the database.

ETOH currently contains more than 110,000 entries, ranging in content from simple bibliographic citations to extensive abstracts. ETOH does not provide full-text documents. The database includes some historical records, but the coverage is most comprehensive from the 1980s to the present. The database is updated monthly.

Why use ETOH instead of MEDLINE? Admittedly, the databases overlap. ETOH covers several titles not abstracted in MEDLINE, however. ETOH also provides information on non-journal publications, such as books, book chapters, newsletters, dissertations, conference papers, and other gray literature.

The search interface for ETOH accommodates beginning searchers and experts alike. The basic and expanded search screens can contain just a single word or a complex strategy involving multiple Boolean expressions and nesting. A separate search screen with examples is a helpful feature for a first time user.

Subject searching in ETOH relies on terminology found in NIAAA’s Alcohol and Other Drug (AOD) Thesaurus. Users can access and search the Thesaurus via a link from the ETOH homepage. Users can omit the extra step of searching the Thesaurus, however, by choosing the search screen with indexed search terms. Applets containing appropriate terminology are linked to the descriptor fields on this screen.

The ETOH homepage links to a Quick Search Guide that can provide further help to those interested in using this unique resource.

Smoking and Health Database
http://www.cdc.gov/search.do?action=search&queryText=tobacco

The National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, a component of the CDC, produces the Smoking and Health Database. Smoking and Health focuses on tobacco use and the health consequences of tobacco use. It thus incorporates subject areas such as medicine, epidemiology, psychology, public policy, and anthropology. Smoking and Health contains more than 62,000 bibliographic entries. The date range for the records is primarily from the early 1960s to the present, with some historical records. The database is updated at least annually. Smoking and Health abstracts a variety of publication types. So, like ETOH, Smoking and Health complements MEDLINE rather than simply du[?].

The search interface for Smoking and Health has pull down menus to help users shape queries. Author, title, and other free text fields can be set to contain a phrase, a couple of words in order, all of the words, or any of the words. Publication years, document types, and languages can be set to match or not match a single criterion. It is also possible to form queries by using symbols within fields. Operations include AND, OR, truncation, and wildcards. The basic and advanced search screens are similar; the [?]number of less commonly used fields. Links to a “1-2-3 Guide to Searching” and “Information on How to Search” are available to further aid interested users.