This article highlights the additions and changes in the DeCS vocabulary in 2016.

Totals by type of terminology

Overview of vocabulary development and changes

• 440 new MeSH descriptors and 23 synonyms were added and translated to Spanish and Portuguese;
  
  
• In response to the Zika virus epidemics, which is transmitted to people primarily through the bite of an infected Aedes species mosquito, MeSH added two new headings in January, 2016, which were added to DeCS 2016:
  
  Zika Virus
  
  Zika Virus Infection
  
  These headings are immediately available by downloading the latest version of 2016 MeSH data. For more information, see: NLM Technical Bulletin, Jan-Feb 2016, New 2016 MeSH Headings: Zika Virus Infection and Zika Virus
  
  
• 3 new DeCS-exclusive descriptors were added in all three languages;

  Diet, Homeopathy

  Ice Industry

  Sustainable Development Goals

• 58 MeSH descriptors and 6 DeCS descriptors were replaced with more up-to-date terminology in English

• 59 DeCS descriptors had their Spanish version updated

• 69 DeCS descriptors had their Portuguese version updated

• 9 MeSH descriptors and 7 DeCS descriptors were eliminated
  

• 1 MeSH qualifier had been eliminated: /diagnostic use, whose concept was included in /diagostic's concept
  
  
• 1 MeSH synonym was added in an existing concept, and translated to Spanish and Portuguese;
  

• 1.437 DeCS synonyms were added (of which 0 in English, 750 in Spanish, and 687 in Portuguese) in existing concepts; read more below about the Harmonization of the Health Thesaurus of the Brazilian Health Ministry and DeCS;
  

• 443 definitions and 25 indexing annotations for the new MeSH concepts were translated to Spanish and Portuguese;
  

• 399 definitions and 817 indexing annotations had their texts updated in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

The ten subcategories receiving the greatest number of new descriptors:

Subcat	Subcategory name	Number of descriptors
D12	Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins	128
D03	Heterocyclic Compounds	102
D02	Organic Compounds	98
G07	Physiological Phenomena	29
E05	Investigative Techniques	25
I01	Social Sciences	25
B01	Eukaryota	23
F01	Behavior and Behavior Mechanisms	22
E02	Therapeutics	21
N02	Health Care Facilities, Manpower, and Services	20

New Descriptors by Tree Category

Helpful Links

Please consult the DeCS 2016 edition or the online Introduction to 2016 MeSH for more details. A complete list of new and changed vocabulary is available at these links:

Vocabulary changes

New descriptors

Replaced descriptors

Deleted descriptors

MeSH tree number changes

MeSH and DeCS tree number changes

2016 MeSH highlights

• MeSH is available in RDF Linked Data format.
  
  
• 2016 MeSH is available for download in XML, ASCII, and MeSH/MARC formats.
  
  
• MeSH on Demand is a new tool that can automatically identify relevant MeSH terms from text such as an abstract or grant summary.
  

Projects Completed for 2016

In addition to responding to user requests for changes and additions several projects were completed that will improve MeSH vocabulary structure and content.

MeSH qualifier (subheading) deletion: In order to improve indexing consistency and efficiency and to make MEDLINE searching easier and more straightforward, the subheading /diagnostic use was deleted from MeSH.

To cover the concept of /diagnostic use related to diseases, search:

• diseases with the subheading /diagnosis (or specific subheading treed under it)
  
• the specific diagnostic technique
  
• specific chemical(s) or physical agent(s) with no subheadings

To cover the concept of /diagnostic use related to clinical/physiological conditions, search:

• organ or process terms with appropriate subheadings
  
• the specific diagnostic technique
  
• specific chemical(s) or physical agent(s) with no subheadings

To cover the general concept of the /diagnostic use of substances, search:

• the MeSH Heading "Diagnostic Uses of Chemicals"

MeSH tree revision: In the past, MeSH headings were more loosely organized into a tree hierarchy. A heading could appear in multiple tree locations depending upon the importance and specificity. In some cases the heading would appear two or more times in the same tree at higher and lower levels. This arrangement led to some headings appearing as a sibling (uncle) next to the parent heading that they were also treed under. In other cases a heading was included at a top level so it could be seen more readily in printed material. These headings were reviewed in MeSH and either the Uncle or Nephew was removed depending upon the judgement of the Internal and External reviewers. There were over 1,000 tree changes resulting from this work, many of which will affect search retrieval in data bases indexed with MeSH/DeCS, so please make it a habit to, once a year, review search strategies that include tree numbers.

People and professions: The M01 tree in MeSH/DeCS is devoted to persons as individuals or members of a group, while the H tree contains the Disciplines and Occupations (professions). Although this premise held true for most cases, there were exceptions where people were listed as an entry term under their profession. In addition the qualifier "/manpower" was used with a profession to indicate the person when a heading for them was not available. This was an inconsistency that required too much effort on the part of searchers to determine where to look and what to do. The trees were simplified by moving all people from the professions tree and new headings were created for them in the Persons tree.

Plants and food categories revision: The J02 tree in MeSH/DeCS includes food items, while the B tree contains plants and animals. For many years the fact that some plants and animals are also treed under food has been source of confusion for searchers. Many requests were received to add and subtract specific plants from food that were based upon conflicting sources of information. In addition, the range of exotic plants being eaten has expanded over the years. To respond to these problems major changes were made to the organization of nutritional phenomena for the 2016 edition.

Nutritionally-related descriptors were brought together under the descriptor "Diet, Food, and Nutrition" that was created in the G07 tree. The descriptors "Diet" and "Nutritional Physiological Phenomena", along with their child descriptors, were moved there. In addition a second tree location for "Food and Beverages" and its child descriptors were added there. Specific plant and chemical headings were removed from underneath "Food and Beverages" because many of the citations indexed with them were not about food or nutritional topics. As a result, searching "Food and Beverages" or "Diet, Food, and Nutrition" now gives a more focused retrieval of citations that are nutritionally related. Articles that discuss a specific plant or chemical in the context of food can still be found through use of coordination of topics rather than using tree inheritance.

For example, a search for "diet, food, and nutrition" and "spinach" to find specific citations about the nutritional value of spinach can be done as follows:

In the VHL Search Portal, whose bibliographic search system does not explode the hierarchical codes descriptors by default, the search is performed through the hierarchical code of the descriptor "Food, Diet and Nutrition" followed by the sign $, because this descriptor is generic and only used for searching:

mh:G07.203$ AND spinach (all documents)
mj:G07.203$ AND spinach (documents with main or primary subjects)

In Pubmed, using the descriptor itself:

"diet, food, and nutrition"[mh] AND spinach (all documents)
"diet, food, and nutrition"[mj] AND spinach (documents with subjects being main or primary)

Modifications of the three headings below relate to the solution of the MeSH-DeCS conceptual duplication or the hierarchical code modifications categories exclusively DeCS. For more detailed changes in hierarchical codes see hierarchical codes changes MeSH codes and hierarchical changes DeCS and MeSH.

1. Terms exclusively DeCS 2015 which became part of MeSH concepts in its 2016 version (first view type of two vocabularies harmonization):

Several concepts and terms that were exclusively DeCS entered the 2016 version of MeSH. For example, see the new hierarchical branch in category G descriptor "Saline Waters", embodied by MeSH.

PHENOMENA AND PROCESSES [G]
   Biological Phenomena [G16]
      Ecological and Environmental Phenomena [G16.500]
         Environment [G16.500.275]
            Ecosystem [G16.500.275.157]
               Saline Waters [G16.500.275.725]

PUBLIC HEALTH [SP]
   Environmental Health[SP4]
      Water Resources [SP4.016]
         Water [SP4.016.132]
            Saline Waters [SP4.016.132.538]

PUBLIC HEALTH [SP]
   Environmental Health[SP4]
      Water Resources [SP4.016]
         Water Characteristics[SP4.016.152]
            Water Chemical Characteristics [SP4.016.152.678]
               Saline Waters [SP4.016.152.678.129]

This example in the DeCS Search System.

	2015		2016
	STATUS	CATEGORIES	STATUS	DESCRIPTOR	CATEGORIES
Adolescent Health	descriptor	SP	descriptor	Adolescent Health	N and SP
Ambulatory Health Services	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Ambulatory Care	E, N, SP and VS
Armed Conflicts	descriptor	SP	descriptor	Armed Conflicts	I and SP
Bactericides	descriptor	SP and VS	entry term in	Anti-Bacterial Agents	D, SP and VS
Breast Cancer Prevention	descriptor	SP	deleted (coordinate with qualif /prevention & control)	Breast Neoplasms	C
Bylaws (Health Law)	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Constitution and Bylaws	N and SP
Cartography	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Geographic Mapping	E, N and SP
Cervix Neoplasms Prevention	descriptor	SP	deleted (coordinate with qualif /prevention & control)	Uterine Cervical Neoplasms	C
Child Health	DeCS descriptor (inn MeSH was entry term in Child Welfare)	SP	descriptor	Child Health	N and SP
Communicable Disease Prevention	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Communicable Disease Control	N and SP
Constitution	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Constitution and Bylaws	N and SP
Dietetic Sweeteners	descriptor	VS	entry term in	Sweetening Agents	D, G, J and VS
Environmental Contamination Control	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Environmental Monitoring	N, SP and VS
Equity in Health	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Health Equity	N and SP
Fruit Juices	entry term in Juices Juices	VS	entry term in	Fruit and Vegetable Juices	G, J and VS
Vegetable Juices	entry term in Juices	VS	entry term in	Fruit and Vegetable Juices	G, J and VS
Hospitals, Day	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Day Care, Medical	E, N, SP and VS
Industrial Development	entry term in Industrialization (Environmental Health)	SP	descriptor	Industrial Development	I, J and SP
Internacional Law	descriptor	SP	descriptor	International Law	I, N e SP
Natural Resources (Environmental Health)	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Natural Resources	G, J, N and SP
Population Projections	descriptor	SP	entry term in	Population Forecast	I, N and SP
Polishes (Health Surveillance)	descriptor	VS	entry term in	Industrial Oils	J and VS
Radiation Exposure	descriptor	SP and VS	descriptor	Radiation Exposure	G, N, SP and VS
Saline Waters	descriptor	SP	descriptor	Saline Waters	G e SP
Maternal-Child Health Services	descriptor	SP	descriptor	Maternal-Child Health Services	N e SP
Waterborne Diseases	descriptor	SP	descriptor	Waterborne Diseases	C e SP

2. Terms exclusively MeSH that became MeSH/DeCS in version 2016 (second view type of two vocabularies harmonization):

	2015		2016
	STATUS	CATEGORIES	STATUS	DESCRIPTOR	CATEGORIES
Child Health	DeCS descriptor (in MeSH was entry term in Child Welfare)	SP	descriptor	Child Health	N and SP
Day Care	descriptor	E and N	entry term in	Day Care, Medical	E, N, SP and VS
Infant Health	entry term in Infant Welfare	I	descriptor	Infant Health	N and SP
Maternal Health	entry term in Maternal Welfare	I	descriptor	Maternal Health	N and SP
Natural Resources	entry term in Conservation of Natural Resources	J and N	descriptor	Natural Resources	G, J, N and SP

3. New MeSH 2016 descriptors which [became MeSH/DeCS, when they received] [or included] hierarchic codes from exclusively DeCS categories in version 2016 (third view type of two vocabularies harmonization):

New MeSH 2016 descritor	Categories in 2016
Adolescent Health	N e SP
Armed Conflicts	I e SP
Child Health	N e SP
Fruit and Vegetable Juices	G, J e VS
Health Equity	N e SP
Industrial Development	I, J e SP
Infant Health	N e SP
International Law	I, N e SP
Maternal Health	N e SP
Maternal-Child Health Services	N e SP
Natural Resources	G, J, N e SP
Population Forecast	I, N e SP
Radiation Exposure	G, N, SP e VS
Saline Waters	G e SP
Waterborne Diseases	C e SP

Other pertinent articles:

MEDLINE/PubMed Year-End Processing Activities

2015 MeSH Headings Available in the MeSH Browser

2016 MeSH Available for Download

Cataloging News 2016

MEDLINE Data Changes — 2016

What's New for 2016 MeSH

Newly Maintained MEDLINE for 2016 MeSH Now Available in PubMed

Source: Schulman JL. What's New for 2016 MeSH®. NLM Tech Bull. 2015 Nov-Dec;(407):e9.
Available on Internet: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/nd15/nd15_mesh.html

Adaptation by: Health Terminologies and Classifications Section at BIREME/PAHO/WHO

Date of update: June, 2016