Research Guides: Literature Reviews (in the Health Sciences): Find "fill-in" information

What is fill-in information?

As you write a literature review you may find yourself wanting to write statements that you know to be true, but for which you have no specific article to cite. Some common statements of this type:

Numbers and percents. X number of people or X% of people in the US have this disease.
The typical symptoms of a disease, or its typical course, or its typical treatments.
How a medical device or technology functions.

It is extremely hard to find this type of data in articles. Save yourself time by using other types of information resources to find this "fill-in" data. You should use this sparingly, though, as the majority of the information in your literature review should come from primary sources.

Health Statistics Guide
A comprehensive guide to statistical information on health, wellness, and expenditures at the county, state, and national levels.

AccessMedicine This link opens in a new window
Collection of medical textbooks covering almost all body systems. Good for finding etiology, typical symptoms of a disease, common treatments, and descriptions of devices/technologies.
MedlinePlus This link opens in a new window
This is a consumer-focused medical information site. It includes basic information about diseases. It also includes extensive listings of non-profit, governmental, and advocacy groups focused on a disease/system (e.g. American Heart Association; American College of Cardiology; National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute). These groups can also be sources of basic data about diseases.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) This link opens in a new window
This government agency provides data on health and disease. Consider using other US government sites, too.

National Institutes of Health (NIH)
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Provides access to the NIH search engine allowing for subject searching of all NIH Web sites.