Using PubMed in Evidence-Based Practice

Use PubMed to Find Relevant Articles

Filter PubMed Search Results

Using filters can help narrow your search to the most relevant results. PubMed provides filters that are useful for research in medicine, nursing, and related fields.

Scenario

To better answer our clinical question, let’s go back to our results and filter our search. We will apply filters to our search on patient education for patients ages 65 and older with hypertension.

PubMed search reults page with 'high blood pressure patient education and exercise' in the search box

Additional Filters

In order to view all of the filter options, scroll down the page and click on “Additional filters.”

We will use the Age filter. Note that using the Age, Sex or Species filters in PubMed will eliminate records that have not been indexed.

We might consider filtering by Publication date for some research topics, but for this topic, it would not be appropriate to eliminate earlier literature. Older research on the effect of education on patient behavior might be relevant today.

Additional filters pop-up with filter options circled

Age Filter

An important part of our research question is the age of the patients: 65 and older. Narrow the results to that age category by using the "Age" filter to select "Aged: 65+ years."

Additional filters pop-up with Age, Aged 65+ years, and Show circled

You will be returned to your search results, and your selected Age filter is now applied. Notice that we have a manageable number of results now, which we should explore.

Age filter and Aged 65+ years checkbox circled in the left column

Clearing Filters

To remove a filter, deselect the filter option. You can also remove all filters by clicking on "Clear applied filters." To reset the filters menu to the default settings, click "Reset filters menu."

Checkmark next to Aged 65+ years circled. Reset All Filters also circled.