MedlinePlus: a resource for occupational therapists

What is MedlinePlus?

MedlinePlus (https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/) is a medical information resource provided by the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the National Institutes of Health of the United States. The website is designed to offer reliable and up-to-date health information to patients, families, professionals, and the general public. It is a free resource available in both English and Spanish.

MedlinePlus content and its relevance to occupational therapy

As can be seen on the homepage, MedlinePlus allows information to be accessed intuitively. It is organised into six sections: Health Topics, Medical Tests, Drugs and Supplements, Medical Encyclopedia, Genetics and Healthy Recipes. For searching information on specific conditions, the Health Topics section (https://medlineplus.gov/spanish/healthtopics.html), provides information on the symptoms, causes, treatments, and prevention of diseases, conditions, and wellness topics.

The Health Topics section is grouped into five subsections: Body Location/Systems, Disorders and Conditions, Diagnosis and Therapy, Demographic Groups, and Health and Wellness.

For occupational therapists, MedlinePlus can be a useful tool, as it facilitates access to information that can be used for evidence-based decision-making in the planning of interventions.

How can I find information on a specific condition using MedlinePlus?

Let us suppose we have a patient with Alzheimer’s disease and we want to search for information on MedlinePlus. Below are two ways to find this information.

• Using the Health Topics section

First, make sure MedlinePlus is set to the language of your choice (English or Spanish). Then navigate to the Health Topicssection and, once there, go to Brain and Nerves.

Por último, buscaremos Enfermedad de Alzheimer donde  encontraremos la información sobre esta patología.

• Using the search bar

First, make sure MedlinePlus is set to the language of your choice (English or Spanish). Then go to the search bar and type in the topic or condition of interest — in this case, Alzheimer’s disease.

Finally , click on Read more to find information on this condition.

How can I find articles related to a topic of interest?

Both MedlinePlus and MEDLINE/PubMed are resources of the National Library of Medicine and, although they provide different types of information, they are interconnected. The Health Topics pages in MedlinePlus include links to searches on specific topics, created by medical librarians. These links provide references and abstracts of the latest articles from the biomedical literature.

To access a wider range of articles on a topic of interest, it is important to switch MedlinePlus to English. Following the previous example of Alzheimer’s disease, navigate to the Research section Research, specifically to Journal Articles

Once in Journal Articles, click on Alzheimer’s Disease — see more articles.

 MedlinePlus will then redirect to PubMed, where articles related to the topic of interest can be found and those most relevant to the search can be selected.

Clinical practice guidelines and/or family guides

In certain cases, searches on MedlinePlus may lead to linked clinical practice guidelines and/or family guides.

Taking a search on Spina Bifida.as an example:

scrolling down the page to the Living with… section, a Guide for Prospective Parents , can be found, containing valuable and relevant information on this condition.

Advantages of MedlinePlus

All information on MedlinePlus is free, reviewed by experts, and regularly updated to reflect advances in the health field. It is also important to highlight that the information provided in Spanish greatly improves accessibility for Spanish-speaking users — enabling professionals, patients, and family members alike to access clear and comprehensible information.

One of its key strengths is that all content is reviewed and updated when new information becomes available on a given topic, and new articles are added every month. Health Topics are updated as new information becomes available, and links are checked and corrected daily. Medical Tests undergo a full review at least every three years. In both cases, a “last updated” date is provided, indicating when the content was last reviewed and updated by experts. Drug and supplement content is reviewed whenever significant changes occur, with a “page reviewed” date shown at the bottom of the page.

A note for optimal use of MedlinePlus

The Spanish version of MedlinePlus is less comprehensive than the English version. For in-depth exploration of certain topics, it is therefore preferable to use MedlinePlus in English, as explained above.

In summary, for clinical practice…

As an occupational therapist, you can use MedlinePlus as an information resource for your patients, to stay up to date on the latest health research, and to access free, easy-to-understand materials.

Noce, M. P., & Casaña Escriche, E. (2024, noviembre 4). MedlinePlus: a resource for occupational therapists PublicaTO – Scientific Skills in Occupational Therapy by InTeO. https://hacto.umh.es/2024/11/04/medlineplus-recurso-para-los-las-terapeutas-ocupacionales/