Coordinated by the Latin American and Caribbean Center on Health Sciences Information of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization (BIREME/PAHO/WHO), the multilingual thesaurus of Health Sciences Descriptors/Medical Subject Headings (DeCS/MeSH) received 394 new descriptors in its latest annual update. The 2024 edition was made available for consultation in May 2024.
Highlights of the DeCS 2024 Edition
Highlights of this edition include new records added to the thesaurus, with 311 coming from MeSH, and 83 new descriptors added in categories exclusive to Latin American literature. With this update, DeCS now contains more than 729,000 terms, including descriptors and synonyms, available in four languages. Highlights also include the insertion and changes of descriptors in the Special MeSH Project related to “Psychological Stress” and advances in the review of the “Homeopathy” category, an exclusive category of DeCS that should be fully revised by the 2025 edition.
Ana Cristina Campos, from the Terminologies and Classifications in Health Sector at BIREME, explains that the annual updates aim to ensure that DeCS maintains its relevance and accuracy as a tool for locating information. “As part of the LILACS and VHL information management methodology, the use of controlled vocabulary in the health field makes research and retrieval of scientific and technical health literature more effective,” she clarified.
The annual editions of DeCS are published in accordance with MeSH updates, involving the inclusion of new terms, as well as the removal and repositioning of others. “As a reflection of the transformations of scientific knowledge and the changes inherent to languages, the terminology used in indexing is dynamic and requires constant review and adaptation,” observes Luciana Piovezan, librarian of the Digital Solutions and Emerging Technologies team at BIREME.
Notable Changes in DeCS 2024
In 2024, the category “Chemicals and Drugs” received the highest number of new descriptors, with the inclusion of 129 new terms. “Homeopathy” and “Public Health” received, respectively, 61 and 34 new descriptors. Check below the list of categories that received the most descriptors and the number of additions in the annual update. The total number of terms in each category can be seen in the image below.
| D – | Chemicals and Drugs ………………………………………………….. | 129 |
| HP – | Homeopathy …………………………………………………………………………….. | 61 |
| SP – | Public Health …………………………………………………………………………….. | 34 |
| B – | Organisms …………………………………………………………………………….. | 28 |
| N – | Health Care …………………………………………………………………. | 28 |
| G – | Phenomena and Processes …………………………………………………………… | 24 |
| C – | Diseases ………………………………………………………………………….. | 20 |
| E – | Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment …. | 19 |
| F – | Psychiatry and Psychology …………………………………………………………….. | 17 |
| I – | Anthropology, Education, Sociology, and Social Phenomena ……………. | 14 |
| L – | Information Science ………………………………………………………………. | 11 |
A series of new terms were added to the area of “Psychological Stress,” such as Emotional Exhaustion, Financial Stress, Job Security, Media Exposure, Medical Abandonment, and others. In the subcategory “[I01] Social Sciences,” six alternative terms were elevated to descriptor status. These are Diplomacy, Environmentalism, Political Maneuvers, Stakeholder Participation, Political Activism, and Voting.
Regarding the review of the Homeopathy category, an activity that has been carried out since 2022, the current edition focused on the adjustment of the term “Hierarchies.” Previously organized alphabetically, the terms are now classified by the origin of the medications, such as “Homeopathic Medicine of Animal Origin” or Plant, Viral, Bacterial Origin, etc. With this, nine new descriptors were added to structure more specific concepts, and about 1,558 descriptors had their hierarchy changed, making this the largest number of changes ever implemented in the category since the beginning of its review.
Another novelty of the 2024 Edition, available only in Portuguese so far, is the adjustment of terms according to Inclusive Language guidelines. The initiative met the demand of researchers from the NAI Research Group – Accessibility and Inclusion Center, of the University of Vale do São Francisco, and resulted in the revision of terms related to people with disabilities. Reflecting the impact of this innovation, the term “Deaf Culture” was added to the MeSH thesaurus as a new descriptor.
“At the request of users, the 2024 Edition also includes a series of new descriptors in the Public Health category, such as Femicide, Voluntary Delivery, Birth Plan, Migrant Health, Psychiatric Reform, School Violence, and Prison Overcrowding,” highlighted Ana Cristina. The complete list of new descriptors added in 2024 is available on the DeCS Portal, at the link: https://decs.bvsalud.org/.
DeCS Panorama and other new features on the portal
The redesigned DeCS Portal Home now provides direct access to the “DeCS Finder” resources and the “How to Search” toolbox. Another new feature is the “DeCS Panorama” section, which regularly publishes highlights, news and specific tips for thesaurus users. Check out the content already available at Panorama DeCS – (decs.bvsalud.org).
