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May 2007
Evidence-Based Tip

About the Child: Making sure that the evidence you find can be applied to children

How important is it that your evidence comes from a study that was done with children? And in order for the evidence relevant for your patient, in what age range would those children in the study have to be?

It depends on the question, of course. But in most cases in pediatric practice, we would prefer to base our decisions on studies done with children. Fortunately, PubMed makes it fairly simple for us to find them.

We recommend not using the term "pediatrics" in your search. The MeSH (medical subject heading) for "pediatrics" refers to the medical specialty itself, not to children as a subject. It is also not effective to use the words "child" or "children" in your search. The best, most efficient way to search is to use the Limits options.

After performing your search as usual in the "Clinical Queries" section of PubMed:



Click on the "Limits" tab underneath the search box:



Scroll down to the "Ages" box to choose the appropriate age limit:



Note that you can be very specific when the subject requires it, or go more broadly by choosing "All Child: 0-18 years."

Our studies now should be much more relevant:



Limiting to a specific age group will ensure that a particular age group is included in the article's discussion. It does not eliminate an article in which other age groups are discussed in addition to the one you have chosen. You will not loose good information by limiting this way; you will only make your articles more relevant for your patient.


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