MeSH Population Groups: Federally Recognized Tribal and Minority Terms

Over 1,700 terms for federally recognized American Indian and Alaskan Native tribal names and ethnic minority groups were added to the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) vocabulary in November 2022. This controlled vocabulary was mapped and reviewed by subject matter experts from NIH, NIMHD, and the Network of the National Library of Medicine. The data structure includes common fields for all type 5 SCRs, such as a designated heading mapping.

Use Cases

• Standardizing population group mentions in clinical text using the PREFERRED_TERM and OTHER_TERM columns.
• Linking research datasets to MeSH ontology concepts via the UI (Unique Identifier) column.
• Analyzing relationships between population group terms by examining the HEADING_MAPPED_TO column.
• Enhancing metadata for datasets focused on minority health by integrating this controlled vocabulary.

Strengths

• Contains over 1,700 reviewed and expert-mapped terms for population groups.
• Structured with common MeSH SCR fields (CC, ST, HM, TH) ensuring consistency.
• Developed through a collaboration led by NIMHD and NLM with external scientific review.

Limitations

• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Sample data is unavailable, preventing immediate inspection of data quality and format.
• License and author information are not provided in the input metadata.

Provenance

Source

National Institutes of Health (NIH), led by NIMHD and the NLM OBSSR-Behavioral Ontology Working Group.

Collection Method

Terms were mapped and reviewed by subject matter experts and scientists within and outside NIH.

Time Range

Vocabulary update published on November 29, 2022.

Freshness

Last updated 2025-06-18 21:08:32.