About CINAHL Subject Headings
The CINAHL database is indexed using a controlled vocabulary. This means that each concept is assigned a specific subject heading; regardless of the words the author chose to describe it.
There are more than 14,000 subject headings in CINAHL. CINAHL also accepts the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) used in PubMed.
Easy Subject Searching
The easiest way to search a subject heading is to click on a heading in the full record for an article.
In the image below, an article on "hair loss" is assigned the subject heading "alopecia." Clicking on the subject heading will run a search for that subject heading.
After clicking a subject, you will see search results. At the top of the screen you will see the subject heading you clicked in the search box.
MM before the subject heading is a code that tells CINAHL to search this term as a Medical Subject Heading, and to only return records where the subject is a Major Heading.
You can add other concepts to the search if needed in the second and third search boxes.
