Identifying Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Search Terminology: A Systematic Review of Health Systematic Reviews
Loading...
Date
2016-05-24
Authors
Lee, Joseph G. L.
Ylioja, Thomas
Lackey, Mellanye
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
Research on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations can
provide important information to address existing health inequalities. Finding existing
research in LGBT health can prove challenging due to the plethora of terminology used. We
sought to describe existing search strategies and to identify more comprehensive LGBT
search terminology. We iteratively created a search string to identify systematic reviews
and meta-analyses about LGBT health and implemented it in Embase, PubMed/MEDLINE,
and PsycINFO databases on May 28–29, 2015. We hand-searched the journal LGBT
Health. Inclusion criteria were: systematic reviews and meta-analyses that addressed
LGBT health, used systematic searching, and used independent coders for inclusion. The
published search terminology in each record and search strings provided by authors on
request were cross-referenced with our original search to identify additional terminology.
Our search process identified 19 systematic reviews meeting inclusion criteria. The number
of search terms used to identify LGBT-related records ranged from 1 to 31. From the
included studies, we identified 46 new search terms related to LGBT health. We removed
five search terms as inappropriate and added five search terms used in the field. The resulting search string included 82 terms. There is room to improve the quality of searching and
reporting in LGBT health systematic reviews. Future work should attempt to enhance the
positive predictive value of LGBT health searches. Our findings can assist LGBT health
reviewers in capturing the diversity of LGBT terminology when searching.