Module 2

To date, I have used an electronic index (PubMed), a guideline index (National Guidelines Clearinghouse(NGC), and a web search engine (Google) to retrieve information on the reasons for noncompliance in diabetics.
First, I accessed PubMed and typed in a search for 'diabetes', which returned 353,844 results. I then limited the search to education and (lack of compliance). Yes, the parenthesis allow for phrases to be searched for, rather than the single words:) With these limits, the results were 74. Adding full text to the mix, the results were now 15. Although most of the articles were related to diabetes, only one really pertained to my search.
I next accessed NGC and typed in diabetes mellitus and education and (lack of compliance). The topic was too narrow, which resulted in zero results. I then tried diabetes and education, which resulted in 75. I then added noncompliance, which brought the result to 5. Although this was a rather specific search, again the results didn't help me to answer the original question.
Next, I tried a search with my old friend, Google, which found 1,650,000 results. The results(I only looked at the first page)seemed more relevant to my question.
Perhaps some practice composing great questions might come in handy?! Using some of the results titles from Google, I next tried 'improvement in compliance and education and diabetes' back at the PubMed site, which finally brought up articles applicable to my question.
Lesson learned: I can start a search on the Google site, it may help me formulate a question and get a feeling for what is out there. From there, I could go to PubMed to search for articles, or I could go to the NGC site to access guidelines and clinical trials. The differences seem to be quality of information.