PubMed had a higher sensitivity than Ovid-MEDLINE in the search for systematic reviews.

Wanruchada Katchamart, Amy Faulkner, Brian Feldman, George Tomlinson, Claire Bombardier

Rheumatology Division, Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5G 2E9 Ontario, Canada. wanda.katchamart@utoronto.ca

Journal of clinical epidemiology 2011 Jul

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To compare the performance of Ovid-MEDLINE vs. PubMed for identifying randomized controlled trials of methotrexate (MTX) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). We created search strategies for Ovid-MEDLINE and PubMed for a systematic review of MTX in RA. Their performance was evaluated using sensitivity, precision, and number needed to read (NNR). Comparing searches in Ovid-MEDLINE vs. PubMed, PubMed retrieved more citations overall than Ovid-MEDLINE; however, of the 20 citations that met eligibility criteria for the review, Ovid-MEDLINE retrieved 17 and PubMed 18. The sensitivity was 85% for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 90% for PubMed, whereas the precision and NNR were comparable (precision: 0.881% for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 0.884% for PubMed and NNR: 114 for Ovid-MEDLINE vs. 113 for PubMed). In systematic reviews of RA, PubMed has higher sensitivity than Ovid-MEDLINE with comparable precision and NNR. This study highlights the importance of well-designed database-specific search strategies. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Wanruchada Katchamart, Amy Faulkner, Brian Feldman, George Tomlinson, Claire Bombardier. PubMed had a higher sensitivity than Ovid-MEDLINE in the search for systematic reviews. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2011 Jul;64(7):805-7