There are search terms (both controlled vocabulary and keywords) that can be used when you are conducting a database search about the Social Determinants of Health (SDOH) and health disparities. You may want to focus your search by identifying particular aspects of the SDOH or seeking information about specific populations that may be more vulnerable to health disparities.
As mentioned in the Vulnerability section, the language used in medical databases often reflects social power imbalances. Finding research on people experiencing vulnerability can be complicated, as the language that we use may change over time as social norms and values adjust. In particular, there my be research that uses outdated or even offensive language to describe members of a racial or ethnic group, or LGBTQIA+ people.
Controlled vocabulary (i.e., subject headings like MeSH terms) are updated regularly, but they can still be behind the times, so it is important to know both the subject headings used by the databases and lay terms that could be used to describe your population. In order to get the most expansive search results, you should try a mix of keywords and subject headings when doing a database search. Clinical research is often about specific behaviors and not identities (i.e., "men who sleep with men" as opposed to "gay men"), so umbrella acronyms like "LGBT" or "LGBTQIA" or "GLBT" might not be used in some articles and you may need to try a few different approaches to get the best results.