Table 5.

Combination of terms with the best sensitivity, best specificity, and best optimization of sensitivity and specificity for detecting studies about pediatric medicine (> 1 month to < 19 years) in Medline in 2000

Search Strategy*	Operating Characteristics†
	Sensitivity, %(95% CI)(n = 2845)	Specificity, %(95% CI)(n = 46183)	Precision, %‡(95% CI)	Accuracy, %(95% CI)(n = 49028)
Best sensitivity (child:.mp. OR adolescent.mp. OR infan:.mp.)	98.0 (97.4-98.5)	81.2 (81.1-81.4)	24.6 (23.8-25.4)	82.4 (82.1-82.8)
Best specificity (children.tw.)	58.2 (56.4-60.0)	97.1 (97.0-97.3)	55.5 (53.7-57.2)	94.9 (94.7-95.1)
Best optimization of sensitivity and specificity (adolescent.tw. OR children.tw. OR child, preschool.sh.)	89.3 (88.1-90.4)	87.3 (87.0-87.6)	30.3 (29.3-31.3)	87.4 (87.1-87.7)

^*Search strategies are reported using Ovid's search engine syntax for Medline (if a single search term is shown, this term outperformed two- and three-term combinations). Best sensitivity while keeping specificity ≥ 50%; Best specificity while keeping sensitivity ≥ 50%; Best Optimization of Sensitivity and Specificity is based on lowest possible absolute difference between sensitivity and specificity; mp = multiple posting—term appears in title, abstract, or subject heading; : = truncation; tw = textword (word or phrase appears in title or abstract); sh = subject heading.

^†Total database has 49028 articles, of which 2845 articles are relevant to pediatric medicine and 46183 are irrelevant to pediatric medicine.

^‡n varies by row.