Embase Description: An international clinical research database, originally developed in Amsterdam. Embase rivals PubMed in scope and offers good coverage of natural medicine. It currently indexes >2,000 journals not also indexed by Medline (PubMed), and offers >60,000 unique RCTs. Embase searches Medline too, and its subject thesaurus, Emtree, includes Medline's MeSH terms. Unfortunately, Embase is more challenging to search than PubMed. This video will show you the basics, but feel free to contact the Bastyr library (library@bastyr.edu or Chat) for some additional tips.
One of your patients, with a body mass index (BMI) in the overweight range but without abnormal markers for diabetes, has asked you whether a low fat diet is better than a low carbohydrate diet for losing weight.
| Patient Population (or Problem) | Intervention (or Exposure) | Comparison (if known) | Outcome Measure(s) |
| overweight middle age adults | low fat diet | low carb diet |
sustained weight loss; improved quality of life measures |
Q. Is a low fat diet more effective for weight loss than a low carbohydrate diet in overweight middle age adults?
Note: In the example below, official Embase subject headings (Emtree terms) are capitalized to distinguish them from keywords (but capital letters aren't necessary in running searches).
Embase search query:
overweight AND 'Low Fat Diet' AND 'Low Carbohydrate Diet' NOT 'Diabetes Mellitus'
Filters applied: Article (Publication type); 2008-2012 (Publication Year)
Explanation of Embase search query:
Search terms: Overweight is a natural language term (keyword); Low Fat Diet, Low Carbohydrate Diet, and Diabetes Mellitus are Emtree terms (subject headings). Obesity is an Emtree term, but overweight seems like a better term to use for this patient question.
Use single or double quotes around ALL phrases (this includes Emtree subject terms and keyword phrases).
Filters/Limits: Run searches from the Advanced Search page for full filtering options; fyi for future Embase searches, Male and Female are Emtree terms—you can AND them into your search, if necessary.
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