EBSCO english (Cinahl, ASP, Business Source Complete...): Proximity Operators

Proximity operators are used between your search terms if the words in a compound search term can be within N words of each other (regardless of the order of the words). In the default setting, EBSCO allows five words between words in a compound search term.
It is possible to specify up to 99 = 98 words between search terms.
It can be used only when free text searching, keywords!
Using proximity operators for concepts with more than two words can be problematic.

Examples on searches with proximity operators
Patient education will return documents where the term patient education appears with up to 5 words between each other. This is the default setting when searching for a compound term in the EBSCO databases.

Patient N1 education will return documents where patient and education are up to one word between patient and education (in any order).

Patient N2 education returns documents where there are up to two words between patient and education, for example patient and caregiver education.

It is therefore important to remember that using a proximity operator n < 5 (e.g. N1, N2, N3, N4) will result in a narrower search than simply searching for the term (e.g. patient education).

The Difference
You can find the difference in your search with proximity operators and without proximity operators using the NOT operator.
For example: N2 not N1: (patient N2 education) not (patient N1 education)

Phrase Searching
Compound words can also be searched as a phrase e.g. ‘patient education’. This way you ensure that the keywords are directly next to each other in the specific order.

It is possible to search for multiple terms in combination with proximity operators, but check if all combinations are possible. You may choose to combine only one term with many (rather than multiple terms with multiple terms).