Global research trends at the intersection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and traditional, integrative, and complementary and alternative medicine: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and responsible for a global pandemic. Despite there being no known vaccines or medicines that prevent or cure COVID-19, many traditional, integrative, complementary and alternative medicines (TICAMs) have been touted as the solution, as well as researched as a potential remedy globally. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global research trends at the intersection of TICAM and COVID-19. Methods SCOPUS, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED and PSYCINFO databases were searched on July 5, 2020, with results being exported on the same day. All publication types were included, however, articles were only deemed eligible if they made mention of one or more TICAMs for the potential prevention, treatment, and/or management of COVID-19 or a health issue indirectly resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The following eligible article characteristics were extracted: title; author names, affiliations, and countries; DOI; publication language; publication type; publication year; journal (and whether it is TICAM-focused); 2019 impact factor, and TICAMs mentioned. Results A total of 296 eligible articles were published by 1373 unique authors at 977 affiliations across 56 countries. The most common countries associated with author affiliation included China, the United States, India and Italy. The vast majority of articles were published in English, followed by Chinese. Eligible articles were published across 157 journals, of which 33 were TICAM-focused; a total of 120 journals had a 2019 impact factor, which ranged from 0.17 to 60.392. A total of 327 TICAMs were mentioned across eligible articles, with the most common ones including: traditional Chinese medicine (n = 94), vitamin D (n = 67), melatonin (n = 16), phytochemicals (n = 12), and general herbal medicine (n = 11). Conclusions This study provides researchers and clinicians with a greater knowledge of the characteristics of articles that been published globally at the intersection of COVID-19 and TICAM to date. At a time where safe and effective vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 have yet to be discovered, this study provides a current snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of articles written at the intersection of TICAM therapies and COVID-19.

Download Full-text

Global Research Trends at the Intersection of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Traditional, Integrative, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis

10.21203/rs.3.rs-37821/v2 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jeremy Y. Ng

Keyword(s):

Impact Factor ◽

Bibliometric Analysis ◽

Research Trends ◽

Publication Type ◽

Alternative Medicines ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Eligible Article ◽

Publication Language ◽

Global Research ◽

Complementary And Alternative

Abstract Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and responsible for a global pandemic. Despite there being no known vaccines or medicines that prevent or cure COVID-19, many traditional, integrative, complementary and alternative medicines (TICAMs) have been touted as the solution, as well as researched as a potential remedy globally. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global research trends at the intersection of TICAM and COVID-19. Methods: SCOPUS, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED and PSYCHINFO databases were searched on June 5, 2020, with results being exported on the same day. All publication types were included, however, articles were only deemed eligible if they made mention of one or more TICAMs for the potential prevention, treatment, and/or management of COVID-19. The following eligible article characteristics were extracted: title; author names, affiliations, and countries; DOI; publication language; publication type; publication year; journal (and whether it is TICAM-focused); impact factor, and TICAMs mentioned. Results: A total of 178 eligible articles were published by 856 unique authors at 541 affiliations across 43 countries. The most common countries associated with author affiliation included China, United States, Italy and India. The vast majority of articles were published in English, followed by Chinese. Eligible articles were published across 100 journals, of which 24 were TICAM-focussed; only 69 journals had a 2018 impact factor, which ranged from 0.672-59.102. A total of 180 TICAMs were mentioned across eligible articles, with the most common ones including: Traditional Chinese Medicine (n=64), vitamin D (n=44), melatonin (n=10), general herbal medicine (n=9), and vitamin C (n=8). Conclusions: This study provides researchers and clinicians with a greater knowledge of the characteristics of articles that been published globally at the intersection of COVID-19 and TICAM to date. At a time where safe and effective vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 have yet to be discovered, this study may aid to guide the identification and exploration of understudied TICAM therapies that may hold potential in combatting the COVID-19 pandemic.

Download Full-text

Global Research Trends at the Intersection of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) and Traditional, Integrative, and Complementary and Alternative Medicine: A Bibliometric Analysis

10.21203/rs.3.rs-37821/v1 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jeremy Y. Ng

Keyword(s):

Impact Factor ◽

Bibliometric Analysis ◽

Research Trends ◽

Publication Type ◽

Alternative Medicines ◽

Global Pandemic ◽

Eligible Article ◽

Publication Language ◽

Global Research ◽

Complementary And Alternative

Download Full-text

A Paradigm Shift in Healthcare Innovation as Revealed by Research Trends in Mobile Health: A Bibliometric Analysis. (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.31097 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jianfei Cao ◽

Yeongjoo Lim ◽

Shintaro Sengoku ◽

Xitong Guo ◽

Kota Kodama

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Health Policy ◽

Bibliometric Analysis ◽

The United States ◽

Research Trends ◽

Annual Number ◽

Public Healthcare ◽

Growth Trend ◽

Number Of Publications ◽

Research Hotspots

BACKGROUND Smartphones have become an integral part of our lives with their unprecedented popularity and diversification of applications. The continuous upgrading of information technology has also enabled smartphones to display great potential in the field of healthcare. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to clarify the future research direction of mHealth by analyzing its research trends and latest research hotspots. METHODS This study collected mHealth-related literature published between 2000 and 2020 from the Web of Science database. Descriptive statistics of the literature were computed using Excel software. The publication trends of mHealth research were determined by analyzing the annual number of publications in the literature and annual number of publications categorized based on different countries. Finally, this study used the VOSviewer tool to construct visualization network maps of country/region collaborations and author keyword co-occurrences, and overlay visualization maps of the average publication year of author keywords to analyze the hotspots and research trends in mHealth research. RESULTS In this study, 12,593 mHealth-related research articles published between 2000 and 2020 were collected. The results showed an exponential growth trend in the number of annual publications in mHealth literature. The United States remained the leading contributor to the literature in this area (5,294/12,593, 42%), well ahead of other countries/regions. Other countries/regions also showed a clear trend of annual increases in the number of publications in mHealth literature. Regarding cooperation between countries, the four countries with the largest number of publications, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia, were found to cooperate more closely. The rest of the countries/regions showed a clear geographical pattern of cooperation. The keyword co-occurrence analysis of the top 100 authors formed five clusters, namely: development of mHealth medical technology and its application in various diseases, use of mHealth technology to improve basic public health and health policy, mHealth self-health testing and management in daily life, adolescent use of mHealth, and mHealth in mental health. The research trends revealed a gradual shift in mHealth research from health policy and improving public healthcare to the development and social application of mHealth technologies. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, the most current bibliometric analysis dates back to 2016. However, the number of mHealth researches published between 2017 and 2020 exceeds the previous total. Therefore, the results of this study shed light on the latest research hotspots and research trends in mHealth research. These findings provide a useful overview of the development of the field; they may also serve as a valuable reference and provide guidance for other researchers in the field.

Download Full-text