Abstract
Given that mental health issues are acute in Asian countries, particularly Japan and Korea, and university students are more vulnerable to depression than the general population, this study aims to examine the landscapes of scientific research regarding depressive disorders among university students and evaluate the effectiveness of international collaboration and funding provision on the scientific impact in Korea, Japan, and China. Based on articles retrieved from the Web of Science database during the period 1992–2018, we found that the number of scientific publications, international collaborations, and allocated funds regarding depressive disorder among university students in China (97 articles, 43 international collaborations, and 52 funds provided, respectively) overwhelmingly surpassed the case of Korea (37 articles, 12 international collaborations, and 15 funds provided, respectively) and Japan (24 articles, 5 international collaborations, and 6 funds provided, respectively). The differences in collaboration patterns (p-value < 0.05) and the proportion of allocated funds (p-value < 0.05) among Korea, Japan, and China were also noted using Fisher’s exact test. Based on the Poisson regression analysis, China’s associations of scientific impact with international collaboration (β = −0.322, p-value < 0.01) and funding provision (β = −0.397, p-value < 0.01) are negative, while associations of the scientific impact and scientific quality with funding provision and international collaboration were statistically insignificant. These findings hint that Korea and Japan lacked scientific output, diversity in research targets, international collaboration, and funding provision, compared to China, but the quality of either China’s internationally collaborated or funded articles was contentious. As a result, policymakers in Korea and Japan are suggested to raise the importance of mental health problems in their future policy planning and resource distribution. Moreover, it would be advisable to establish a rigorous system of evaluation for the quality of internationally collaborated and funded studies in order to increase scientific impact and maintain public trust, especially in China.
Highlights
There are more than 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 today, which makes our current young generation the largest ever in history [1]
The current study examined the landscape of research regarding depression among university/college students in Japan, Korea, and China, employing the data downloaded from the Web of Science (WoS) database of Clarivate
In China, we found that even though the first publication emerged in 1999, relatively later than the other two countries, the number of studies related to depressive disorder among university students started to increase more substantially and consistently than Korea and Japan in 2007
Summary
There are more than 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 today, which makes our current young generation the largest ever in history [1]. For them to be able to take on these future tasks as independent, self-sustaining adults, the youth needs education and protection and support in various aspects of their development. Healthcare is one such aspect, of which mental health care is becoming a more and more pressing issue. With a vision towards improving global mental health and endorsing the sustainable development, in a recent Commission on Global Mental Health and Sustainable Development by The Lancet [9], protecting mental health by public policies, additional financial investment, and enhancing research and innovation have been listed as some of the major approaches [10]
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