To search for Indigenous Health related content within our UWA subscription databases you will need to search across medical and health specialist databases in addition to those that specialize in collating Indigenous and  Australian content. 

Informit Database Platform

Within this guide we have discussed the importance of the Indigenous peoples collection within the Informit database platform for information specifically on this topic.

Another important subject area within Informit is the AUSTHealth collection of 10 indexing databases.  These focus on Australian publications and government reports.  Create a Indigenous specific subject search within this group of databases or select specific individual databases to search.   Specific Informit health related databases include: 

Ovid Database Platform

Our subscriptions to important specialist medical databases such as Medline,  Embase and PsycINFO are available through the Ovid search platform.

All use their own specialist medical subject terms allowing you to target your search to specific health related research.  This is why we recommend searching them as individual databases. You could, however, simultaneously search all three within Ovid using keywords only.  

The Ovid platform allows you to sort and filter results to identify different; publication and clinical query types, levels of evidence and client groups.

Medline and Embase in particular are vital to any search of the medical literature as together they allow you to search the content of some of the most important medical publications from the US, the UK and internationally. 

Here are some tips for searching the subject indexes of these three databases for Indigenous Australian content:   

A major sources of international biomedical literature with an emphasis on the US.  Coverage includes clinical medicine, dentistry, nursing, health administration, nutrition and more.	International biomedical and pharmacological database developed to support evidence based medicine and drug efficacy. Strong emphasis on Europe and Japan.	A major source of international literature in psychology and behavioral sciences, developed by the American Psychology Association.
Medline - MeSH Terms	Embase - EmTree Terms	PsycInfo Subject Terms
The MeSH heading for Australian Aborigines is: Oceanic Ancestry Group.  This subject will work for some searching, but it does include people groups other than Australian Aborigines.	There is a general broad EmTREE heading for Indigenous People. Within this tree you will find the narrower and more specific term of Indigenous Australian.   There is a another narrow subject heading for indigenous health care which is part of a transcultural care broader term. .	The broad term Indigenous Populations is used for Aboriginal populations generally.  This term sits within the broader term of Racial and ethnic groups.

Note:  Make sure you have ticked the "Map Term to Subject Heading" to identify and select subject terms.

Alternatively, do a keyword only search (untick) for  "Indigenous Australians" OR "Australian Aborigines" AND "Your topic"

For a search filter to find Aboriginal and Torres Strait health literature see the Lowitja Lit.Search Filter for PubMed

For further suggestions of health related and Indigenous databases look at the Aboriginal Health and Wellbeing databases

Journals for Indigenous Australian's Health 

The easiest way to identify journals specifically about Indigenous Australians' health is to begin with a broad topic search ....

and then refine your search by applying the Journals filter within  "Resource Type", as per this example. 

Searching within Medical Journals

It's also important to search within general health and medicine specific journals for Indigenous health issues. 

You can do this is by searching OneSearch and limiting to articles asa "Resource Type" or by searching within your favorite medical journal. 

For Instance the Medical Journal of Australia publishes a special Indigenous health focused edition each year.  Using the Search for articles within this journal feature - from within the OneSearch record for this journal - you can easily identify these articles, as per this search example. 

Note:  For more advanced search features - jump from OneSearch out  to one of our full-text Databases for this journal - and carry out your search for Indigenous health topics there. 

The Commonwealth Government is a rich source of information about health issues impacting Indigenous Australian's with many of their websites providing dedicated content areas that can easily be browsed.  Carrying out a simple keyword search within these websites is also a great way to identify resources on a specific topic.   

In addition to the general web resources suggested in this guide, here are some of the key Government health sites you should become familiar with: 

Australian Government Sites

For more information about locating statistics see our Statistics and Data Online Library Guide.