Contribution of Eastern Mediterranean Region countries to palliative care journals from 1991 to 2020 and its relationship to the development of palliative care

Contribution of Eastern Mediterranean Region countries to palliative care journals from 1991 to 2020 and its relationship to the development of palliative care

Background Palliative care (PC) is in an early stage of development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of the World Health Organization. A metric based on publishing in specialized PC journals may be useful in assessing PC development. This study was conducted to describe the contribution of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:BMC palliative care Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 1 - 123
Main Authors: Alsirafy, Samy A, Hassan, Amneh D, Sroor, Mahmoud Y, Samy, Ismail, Mousa, Somaia M. A
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 12-07-2022
BioMed Central
BMC
Subjects:
Bibliometrics
Collaboration
Development
Eastern mediterranean
Forecasts and trends
Health aspects
History
Hospice care
Hypothesis testing
Indicators
International aspects
Narcotics
Palliative Care
Palliative treatment
Periodicals
Population
Scientific publishing
Social aspects
Software
Egypt
Afghanistan
Sudan
Somalia
United Arab Emirates
Libya
Bahrain
Syria
Oman
Djibouti
Saudi Arabia
Lebanon
Pakistan
Iran
Morocco
Qatar
Iraq
Kuwait
Tunisia
Yemen
Mediterranean Area
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Summary:Background Palliative care (PC) is in an early stage of development in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMR) of the World Health Organization. A metric based on publishing in specialized PC journals may be useful in assessing PC development. This study was conducted to describe the contribution of EMR countries to PC research and to study the relationship between this contribution and the levels of PC development. Methods The Scopus database was used to search 21 PC journals (1991-2020) for articles with at least one EMR-affiliated author independently of his/her position in the article. As an indicator, the 3-year average articles per million population per year (AAMY) was calculated. Changes over time were calculated through a regression analysis. The relationship between the AAMY and the level of PC development and opioid consumption were assessed through Mann-Witney test using the worldmap PC development categories as a proxy, and Spearman analysis, respectively. Results The number of articles published during the 30-year period was 31,108 of which 402 (1.3%) were EMR-affiliated. There was a steady rise in the AAMY of the EMR (R.sup.2 = 0.894). The number of EMR-affiliated articles increased from 3 in the period 1991-1995 to 191 in 2016-2020. The 2018-2020 AAMY was significantly higher in countries with greater PC development than in those without (median [IQR] = 0.0975 [0.0254-0.1802] and 0.0098 [0-0.0256], p = 0.042). Also, it was significantly higher in countries that progressed to a higher level of PC development between 2006 and 2017 (p = 0.0159). There was a significant positive correlation between the average opioid consumption for the years 2017-2019 and the AAMY for the same period (p = 0.0043). Conclusions There is a slow steady progress in the contribution of EMR countries to PC journals, which corresponds to the level of PC development and its progress in the region. A metric based on the contribution to specialized PC journals may be a useful indicator of PC development. Keywords: Eastern mediterranean, Scientific publishing, Palliative Care, Development, Indicators
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
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ISSN:1472-684X
1472-684X
DOI:10.1186/s12904-022-01016-0