Is 'self-medication' a useful term to retrieve related publications in the literature? A systematic exploration of related terms.
BACKGROUND
Self-Medication (SM), i.e. using medications to treat oneself, is a major concern for health researchers and policy makers. The terms "self medication" or "self-medication" (SM terms) have been used to explain various concepts while several terms have also been employed to define this practice. Hence, retrieving relevant publications would require exhaustive literature screening. So, we assessed the current situation of SM terms in the literature to improve the relevancy of search outcomes.


METHODS
In this Systematic exploration, SM terms were searched in the 6 following databases and publisher's portals till April 2012: Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, Google scholar, ScienceDirect, and Wiley. A simple search query was used to include only publications with SM terms. We used Relative-Risk (RR) to estimate the probability of SM terms use in related compared to unrelated publications. Sensitivity and specificity of SM terms as keywords in search query were also calculated. Relevant terms to SM practice were extracted and their Likelihood Ratio positive and negative (LR+/-) were calculated to assess their effect on the probability of search outcomes relevancy in addition to previous search queries. We also evaluated the content of unrelated publications. All mentioned steps were performed in title (TI) and title or abstract (TIAB) of publications.


RESULTS
1999 related and 1917 unrelated publications were found. SM terms RR was 4.5 in TI and 2.1 in TIAB. SM terms sensitivity and specificity respectively were 55.4% and 87.7% in TI and 84.0% and 59.5% in TIAB. "OTC" and "Over-The-Counter Medication", with LR+ 16.78 and 16.30 respectively, provided the most conclusive increase in the probability of the relevancy of publications. The most common unrelated SM themes were self-medication hypothesis, drug abuse and Zoopharmacognosy.


CONCLUSIONS
Due to relatively low specificity or sensitivity of SM terms, relevant terms should be employed in search queries and clear definitions of SM applications should be applied to improve the relevancy of publications.
Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Ava
A
Mansouri
Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Amir
A
Sarayani
Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School Of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Asieh
A
Ashouri
Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Mona
M
Sherafatmand
Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Molouk
M
Hadjibabaie
Research Center for Rational Use of Drugs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Kheirollah
K
Gholami
D006801:Humans; D016247:Information Storage and Retrieval; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D011642:Publications; D012651:Self Medication; D014825:Vocabulary