Abstract
Little work has been published on the identification or comparison of information sources in the area of household chemical poisoning. Therefore, this study was set up to evaluate the performance of 11 sources in providing information to answer a selected set of 30 questions. The sources were: 2 on-line bibliographic databases: TOXLINE (TOXL), Excerpta Medica (EMED), one databank: Registry of Toxic Effects of Chemical Substances (RTECS), 6 textbook sources and two National Poisons Information Service in-house databases (Poi sons Index, Clinical Case Reports File). The evaluation was made on the basis of completeness of information provided and search time. The retrieved references from TOXL and EMED were analysed for their relevance. The in-house data bases performed better than the other 9 sources in terms of speed of provision and completeness of information on household product poisoning. The search times (time taken to obtain original articles) using TOXL and EMED were high, although their information retrieval was as good as or better than that of the textbook sources. The RTECS databank provided no useful information. The needs of a poisons infor mation service are best served by a purpose-built in-house database, based on its own clinical case data, supplemented by external sources where necessary. The system would be im proved by computerization.
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