The database I used for my next three searches was Biomed Central also known as BMC.
- My first search was for “Isolation and mental health confinement”. This returned 132 results. The Boolean operator I used was “and”. I found an article near the top of the search that might have useful data it was detailing the effects of isolation on eating disorders.
- The second search I did was in the same database and returned 1197 results. The terms I searched were “isolation or confinement mental health violence”. The Boolean operator being “or”. Any attempts to further refine this search did not make any progress in reducing the number of articles it just crashed the site.
- The third search returned 84 results. I searched “violence in confinement or seclusion space”.
- Since one of my searches did not have the desired number of returns I tried a fourth. “Violence in confinement or seclusion and mental health travel” this returned 45 results. One of them seemed like it might actually contain something relevant. It was about the rise in family violence related to pandemic quarantine stress.
The second database I searched was Institute of Physics or IOP.
- My first search was ‘space travel and mental health. This search returned 54 results. Boolean operator was “and”.
- My second search was for ” confinement and space travel health”. This search returned 84 results. The Boolean operator was “and”.
- My third search was for “travel and major stressors”. This search returned 26 results and I think a few might be useful. Boolean operator was “and”.
Haddad, Zakhour, kheir, Haddad, Hachach, Sacre, Salameh, 2020, Association between eating behavior and quarantine/confinement stressors during the coronavirus disease 2019 outbreak
(The two Haddads are different people and the kheir was not capitalized in the paper)
Pareda, Diaz-Faez, 2020, Family violence against children in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic: a review of current perspectives and risk factors
It looks like your use of Boolean operators is beneficial to your search. I’d be interested to see the specific choices of resources you will end up utilizing. The numbers being produced by your search seem to be enough to give you options and perspective without being to overbearing.
Great example of how “OR” can work well when a search might be overly targeted and could be expanded. In this way, it can save time developing searches and reviewing results while still turning up useful articles.