3. Methods
transition programmes. When searching, we also considered the wider context of
health literacy and the role of health trainers.
3.1.2 Searching
Major bibliographic databases
Searches were conducted across a range of bibliographic databases for research
published in the last 10 years:
• ERIC
• CINAHL
• Social Science Citation Index
• Medline
• PsychInfo
For each of these databases, indexing and free-text terms which covered the key
features of the proposed life checks (e.g. counselling, advice, computerised
assessment, screening, physical examination, health literacy) were combined with
terms representing the three bodies of literature identified as potentially containing
literature relevant to life checks: health promotion (e.g. Health Promotion,
Preventive Medicine, Health Behaviour); resilience and wellbeing (e.g. Resilience-
Personality, Emotional Development, Self Concept); and youth transitions (e.g.
Transitional-Programs, Student Adjustment, School Transition). A population filter
for young people and a publication year filter to identify studies published in the
last 10 years were added to the search strategy.
The search strategy was developed on the Dialog DataStar version of ERIC, and
translated to the other databases. Full details of the search strategies can be
found in Appendix A.
Specialist registers
• CENTRAL (the trials register of the Cochrane Collaboration)
• C2-SPECTR (the trials register of the Campbell Collaboration)
• Bibliomap (EPPI-Centre database of health promotion research)
• NHS National Research Register
• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects (DARE)
• Healthevidence.ca (registry of systematic review evidence)
Searches were conducted across a range of specialist registers. Where
applicable, the search strategy for bibliographic databases was translated to
these registers, using a shortened version of the strategy where limited search
functionality was available. Specialised health promotion indexing was utilised
where available. Full details can be found in Appendix A.
Web searches
Limited web searches were conducted using the Google and Google Scholar
search engines. The terms used are listed below. In most cases, these were
combined with the terms ‘child’ or ‘adolescent’.
• health check
• life check
A scoping review of the evidence relevant to life checks for young people aged 9 to 14 years
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