The University of Pennsylvania's Online Computing Magazine
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March 1993 - Volume 9:5 [Printout | Contents | Search ]
By Maggie Dittemore, Steven J. Bell, Ellen DeMarinis, Sherrie Morgan The rapidity with which the general aging of the population is taking place and the numbers of people and institutions being affected have resulted in considerable research and a substantial body of literature on the topic. The Library offers electronic access to this multi-disciplinary literature through a number of different databases. A selection of these is presented below to demonstrate their breadth and some of the techniques for using them.
Demography of agingThe demographic aspects of aging, both of individuals and of the population as a whole, provide an important overview of this topic. To gain this larger picture from different perspectives, a single search across several databases is useful. One may retrieve both books and journal articles on the demography of aging by entering the relevant keywords as search terms and running them across Franklin and selected other databases. For example, the searchK=(AGED OR AGING) AND DEMOGRAPHY done in Franklin will retrieve nine book titles published in the last decade. The same search may be re-executed in the Wilson databases, an index of more than 1,500 core journals in the arts, humanities, social sciences, and applied science and technology. Enter cho wils to choose the Wilson file. Then enter r (review) to display previous searches and select the search you want to repeat. Type the number associated with it (in this case, s1) and the system will respond with 24 article titles from journals dating from 1983 to present. A few examples are:
DATE: TITLE: AUTHOR: 1992 The demography of minority aging Angel, Jacqueli 1992 The demographic dimension 1992 The dynamics of population aging: Manton, Kenneth A similarly executed search in PsycINFO, the American Psychological Association's bibliographic database which indexes and summarizes articles from over 1,300 scholarly and related journals, yields 47 citations.
Health issues in an older populationWith increasing life expectancy at older ages comes more concern with age-related health issues. Three databases, MEDA, MEDB, and CINAHL are very useful here. MEDA and MEDB are PennData files covering recent years of the English-language portion of MEDLINE, a bibliographic database that indexes approximately 3,700 journals in the health sciences and offers abstracts for most of them. In searching MEDA (1990-present) and MEDB (1987-1989) special medical subject headings are preferred.For example, information on urinary incontinence in elderly patients with Alzheimer's disease may be found by entering: K=ALZHEIMERS DISEASE.SU. AND URINARY INCONTINENCE.SU. AND AGED.SU. Following is one of the citations retrieved:
AU: O'Donnell B F. Drachman D A. Barnes H J.
TI: Incontinence and troublesome behaviors
predict institutionalization
in dementia.
SO: J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol.
1992 Jan-Mar; 5(1):45-52.
In addition to MEDA and MEDB, CINAHL (the Cumulative Index to
Nursing and Allied Health Literature) is available on compact disc at
the Biomedical Library. CINAHL indexes and selectively abstracts over
300 journals of nursing and the allied health professions. As in
MEDLINE, special subject headings (descriptors) should be used to
retrieve information.For example, citations to articles that discuss the care of elderly nursing home patients may be found by entering: nursing-care and aged and nursing-homes An example of a citation retrieved is:
TI: The effect of Orem's self-care model
on nursing care in a nursing
home setting.
AU: Faucett-J; Ellis-V; Underwood-P;
Naqvi-A; Wilson-D
SO: Journal of Advanced Nursing (J-ADV-NURS)
1990 Jun; 15(6);659-66(18 ref.)
SuBsets: Core Nursing(C); Nursing (N).
Social relations in an aging societyWith changes in both fertility and mortality the relative balance between the generations has changed as well. New forms of interdependence are being defined both within the family and society at large. A number of databases may be used to explore these. Among them are Social Work Abstracts (SWAB) and Sociofile, both on compact disc in Van Pelt Reference, and Ageline, a fee-based online database which can be searched at Van Pelt Reference. SWAB is produced by the National Association of Social Workers and indexes journals in, or related to, that field from 1977 to present. Sociofile (1974 to date) combines two indexing services--Sociological Abstracts and Social Planning/Policy & Development Abstracts (SOPODA)--covering 1,600 journals in 30 different languages. Produced by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), Ageline indexes journal articles, books, government documents, etc. All three offer abstracts with their citations.An example of a "free text" search for information on intergenerational relations involving older people might be: (aged or elderly) and intergenerational relations This search strategy produces 12 citations in SWAB, 33 in Ageline, and 103 in Sociofile. Special features of each database allow for expanding or refining the search. The number of citations retrieved in SWAB can be expanded to 25 by using 2005, a special SWAB classification code number for "Aging-and-the-Aged," and the term "intergenerational" (2005 and intergenerational). Fewer citations can be retrieved in Sociofile by using the designation "in de" ((elderly in de) and ((intergenerational relations) in de)), which asks only for records with those designated descriptors (or index terms). An example of a book title retrieved:
AU: Brubaker-Timothy-H.
TI: Family Relations in Later Life
SO: Sage Publications, Newbury Park, CA.
2nd Ed. 1990. (320p.)
Economic effects of population agingThe concern with population aging extends into business and economics. Marketers want to know how to identify and sell to the elderly, who may have significant disposable income. Policy makers and planners study the impact of population aging on entitlement programs and the economy. Both the ABI/Inform database on PennData and EconLIT on compact disc at Lippincott Library are useful for research in these areas.ABI/Inform indexes and abstracts articles from over 600 business journals. For example, information on marketing to older people may be found by entering: K=OLDER PEOPLE.DE. AND TARGET MARKETS.DE. This search strategy takes advantage of ABI/Inform's controlled vocabulary by using the single descriptor or phrase "older people" to locate all significant articles on this subject. Here is a sample brief record:
AU: Moschis, George P.
TI: Gerontographics: A Scientific Approach
to Analyzing and Targeting the Mature
Market.
EconLIT indexes articles from hundreds of economics and finance
journals dating from 1969 to the present. Topics such as health
economics, economics of entitlement programs, or income of the elderly
population may be found. An example of a sample EconLIT search strategy
and document are:
No Records Request
1: 331 ELDERLY or (OLDER ADULTS)
2: 37 #1 and (HEALTH POLICY)
TI: Alternatives to Institutionalization:
Community Long- Term Care
AU: Caro, -Francis-G.
These examples illustrate some of the resources on aging available
at the Library. Additional electronic databases include Health Planning
and Administration File on compact disc and Popline, a National Library
of Medicine database. All of the databases except Ageline are available
free of charge to Penn students, faculty, and staff. Franklin and the
journal article citation databases on PennData can be accessed from
remote sites. Databases on compact disc must be consulted in the
appropriate library. Staff in all Penn Libraries can assist you with
Franklin and PennData queries. However, for special database expertise
direct your calls to the reference staff of the appropriate library.
MAGGIE DITTEMORE is a Social Sciences Bibliographer at Van Pelt Library; STEVEN J. BELL is Head of Circulation/Reserve for Lippincott Library; ELLEN S. DeMARINIS is Social Work Liaison for Van Pelt Library; SHERRIE MORGAN is Nursing School Liaison for the Biomedical Library.
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