A bibliometric analysis of research productivity on parasitic infections in children during the 15-year period / Uma análise bibliométrica da produtividade da investigação sobre infecções parasitárias em crianças durante o período de 15 anos

Abstract

Parasitic infections in children (PIC) represent an important public health issue regarding that children are more vulnerable to these infections and its consequences. Many countries have neglected PIC in their health agendas and budgets, which has hindered scientific production about it. In this sense, bibliometric analyzes have been useful to identify the panorama of scientific production for many diseases and thus assist in decision-making. Thus, this review aims to analyze the brazilian and worldwide scientific production of PIC between 2006 and 2020. The terms “Parasitic diseases” and “Children” were used for search in Scopus database. The variables were organized and simple linear regression was applied using Graphpad Prism 7. Values of p<0.05 were considered statistically significant. was USA (18.5%), UK (8.9%) and Brazil (7.8%) were the countries that performed more scientific research on IPC. Among Brazil´s federal unities, São Paulo (34.3%), Rio de Janeiro (32%) and Minas Gerais (17.3%) published more scientific papers on PIC. The Brazilian research were mostly performed by public institutions, especially FIOCRUZ, USP and UFMG which published 19%, 16% and 10.6% of total Brazilian scientific production about PIC, respectively. There was a significant increase in scientific production about PIC over the 15 years analyzed, especially about schistosomiasis, giardiasis and trichuriasis. In addition, scientific journals from developed countries such as London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases were the main publishers of papers about PIC. Scientific production on PIC increased between 2006 and 2020 with participation of developed countries (USA and UK) and developing countries (Brazil). This increase in scientific production seems to be driven by the increase in studies on giardiasis, trichuriasis and especially schistosomiasis.