Skip to Main Content

KIN 422 Human Gait, Posture and Balance: Pathological and Aging Considerations: Original research

Searching for individual studies - finding primary evidence

If you cannot find a systematic review or CPG related to your research question, the next step is to search for individual or primary studies to identify the most current research.   An article search for background questions can retrieve a LOT of studies.  This is why it is better to use the reference texts to gather basic information and then generate a specific, focused, foreground question for the journal database search.

Journal databases for health research

When using Google Scholar, set up the Google Scholar settings to link to Waterloo full text journals. Check the University of Waterloo box and Save.

Use your WatIAm to access this video (2:55 min) in MS Streams

PubMed search tips

Tip #1:  Use AND / OR / brackets ( )

Background question:  What are the nutritional factors related to bone health? 

(bone density OR bone fractures OR bones) AND (diet OR nutrition) 

Foreground question: What is the effect of calcium and vitamin D supplementation on the incidence of stress fractures in the adult athlete? 

calcium AND vitamin D AND (stress fractures or bone fractures OR bone density) AND athlete

Tip #2: Use the PubMed search terms (MeSH headings) for a topic 

Find MeSH headings in the MeSH database on the PubMed homepage or listed underneath the abstract of an article.

keyword    Mesh heading  PubMed search

seniors
nutrition  
flexibility

aged
diet 
range of motion

 (seniors OR aged)
 (nutrition OR diet) 
 (flexibility OR range of motion)