Table 1
Search strategies used to retrieve integrated care literature.
| Database | PubMed | CINAHL (EBSCOhost) | Embase, PsycINFO, and Econlit (Ovid) | CENTRAL (Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Search strategy | (Integrated care[tiab] OR integrated service*[tiab] OR integrated health*[tiab] OR integrating health*[tiab] OR “integration of care”[tiab] OR “integration of services”[tiab] OR integrating care[tiab] OR care integration[tiab]) AND 2007/01/01[PDat]:2016/12/31[PDat] | TI ((“Integrated care” OR “integrated service*” OR “integrated health*” OR “integrating health*” OR “integration of care” OR “integration of services” OR “integrating care” OR “care integration”)) OR AB ((“Integrated care” OR “integrated service*” OR “integrated health*” OR “integrating health*” OR “integration of care” OR “integration of services” OR “integrating care” OR “care integration”)) Limited to 2007–2016 |
| (“Integrated care” OR “integrated service*” OR “integrated health*” OR “integrating health*” OR “integration of care” OR “integration of services” OR “integrating care” OR “care integration”) Search limited to Record Title or Abstract and 2007–2016 |
[i] Notes on search syntax:
[tiab] = PubMed title and abstract field search.
TI = CINAHL title field search.
AB = CINAHL abstract field search.
.ti,ab = Ovid database syntax for title and abstract field search.
The truncation mark * at the end of a word stem allows for retrieval on all variants of that word stem. For example, health* retrieves health OR healthcare.
Figure 1
Top 20 ranked countries of publication for integrated care literature in PubMed.
Table 2
Top 20 journal titles publishing articles on integrated care in PubMed.
| Journal | Number of citations | MeSH-indexed in PubMed? (Y/N) |
|---|---|---|
| International Journal of Integrated Care | 254 | N |
| BMC Health Services Research | 98 | Y |
| Psychiatric services (Washington, DC) | 56 | Y |
| Journal of General Internal Medicine | 51 | Y |
| The American Journal of Managed Care | 46 | Y |
| ±Studies in Health Technology and Informatics | 43 | Y |
| BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) | 38 | Y |
| PLoS One | 36 | Y |
| Medical Care | 35 | Y |
| BMC Public Health | 34 | Y |
| London Journal of Primary Care | 32 | N |
| Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 30 | Y |
| Families, Systems & Health: The Journal of Collaborative Family Healthcare | 29 | Y |
| Health Affairs (Project Hope) | 29 | Y |
| Health Policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands) | 28 | Y |
| The Health Service Journal | 28 | N |
| BMJ Open | 27 | Y |
| The Permanente Journal | 26 | Y |
| Healthcare Quarterly (Toronto, Ont.) | 21 | Y |
| Psychiatrische Praxis | 21 | Y |
[i] ± Only articles on health technology assessments (HTAs) are currently MeSH-indexed.
Figure 2
Absolute growth rate in citations for all databases.
Table 3
Contribution of unique citations by databases beyond a PubMed search.
| Database | Total number of citations when combined with PubMed (duplicates included) | Total after duplicate pairs removed | Number of unique citations contributed by non-PubMed database | Number of unique journal citations* contributed by non-PubMed database | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | % | n | % | |||
| Embase | 12,398 | 3637 | 2728 | 75.0 | 513 | 14.1 |
| CINAHL | 7448 | 4225 | 773 | 18.3 | 744 | 17.6 |
| PsycINFO | 6991 | 4809 | 897 | 18.7 | 636 | 13.2 |
| Central | 5420 | 4847 | 108 | 2.2 | 105 | 2.2 |
| Econlit | 5097 | 5038 | 62 | 1.2 | 45 | 0.9 |
[i] * Excludes conference abstracts, proceedings, theses, books, book chapters, and reports.
Figure 3
Rate of growth in unique citations by databases measured against a PubMed benchmark.
Table 4
Top 20 journal titles across all database searches.
| Journal | Number of citations retrieved | Journal available in PubMed? (Y/N) |
|---|---|---|
| International Journal of Integrated Care | 254 | Y |
| Journal of General Internal Medicine | 140 | Y |
| Journal of Integrated Care (Brighton, England) | 107 | N± |
| BMC Health Services Research | 99 | Y |
| Journal of Clinical Oncology: Official Journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology | 91 | Y* |
| Value in Health: The Journal of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research | 84 | Y |
| Psychiatric services (Washington, DC) | 71 | Y |
| Journal of the American Geriatrics Society | 59 | Y |
| Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety | 58 | Y |
| Mental Health Weekly | 51 | N |
| Annals of the Academy of Medicine, Singapore | 48 | Y* |
| BMJ (Clinical Research Ed.) | 48 | Y |
| Palliative Medicine | 47 | Y |
| The American Journal of Managed Care | 46 | Y |
| The European Respiratory Journal | 46 | Y* |
| Hepatology (Baltimore, Md.) | 45 | Y |
| Studies in Health Technology and Informatics | 45 | Y |
| American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine | 43 | Y* |
| Circulation | 42 | Y* |
| Gastroenterology | 39 | Y |
| Total number of citations | 1463 |
[i] ± An exception is author manuscripts deposited in PubMed Central (PMC) under compliance with mandated public access policies.
* Supplements containing conference abstracts not included in PubMed.
Table 5
Results from expert screening of citations retrieved by MeSH term ‘Delivery of Health Care, Integrated’.
| Yes (Relevant) | No (Irrelevant) | Unsure | Missing response | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 Reviewer A | 43 | 35 | 21 | 1 | 100 |
| 2010 Reviewer B | 19 | 70 | 10 | 1 | 100 |
| 2013 Reviewer A | 69 | 24 | 7 | 0 | 100 |
| 2013 Reviewer B | 28 | 42 | 30 | 0 | 100 |
| 2016 Reviewer A | 33 | 40 | 26 | 1 | 100 |
| 2016 Reviewer B | 38 | 48 | 12 | 2 | 100 |
| 2016 Reviewer C | 23 | 73 | 3 | 1 | 100 |
| 2016 Reviewer D | 87 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 100 |