Development and Validation of Search Hedges for Transgender and Gender Diverse Populations in Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid APA PsycInfo

ABSTRACT:INTRODUCTION: This poster describes the development and validation of search hedges that effectively identify literature on Two-Spirit, transgender, nonbinary, and gender diverse (TGD) populations. These search hedges allow for more effective identification of relevant literature on a population that is otherwise historically marginalized in the medical and literature and thus challenging to search for otherwise.METHODS: The search hedges were developed by a medical librarian with the partnership of a science librarian utilizing relevant keywords and controlled vocabulary terms. Both search hedges were iteratively tested, refined, and validated for precision and sensitivity against a gold standard set of articles from the Knowsy database of 2SLGBTQ+ evidence syntheses. Results were screened by an international research team who completed final validation of the hedges in 2025 through independent screening at the title/abstract and full-text stages with disputes resolved by an additional screener.RESULTS: The final search hedges demonstrated 100% sensitivity in both Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid APA PsycInfo, identifying all relevant articles from the gold standard set. The Ovid MEDLINE search hedge achieved a 71% precision and the Ovid APA PsycInfo hedge achieved a 67% precision. These results balance comprehensive retrieval while minimizing non-relevant articles for an efficient screening process.CONCLUSIONS: The development and ongoing validation of these search hedges in Ovid MEDLINE and Ovid APA PSycInfo provides a valuable tool for researchers and medical librarians to more efficiently identify literature on transgender and gender diverse populations. These search hedges will be crucial for ongoing work in addressing health disparities faced by this population.