A Retrospective Literature Review of Eating Disorder Research (1990–2021): Application of Bibliometrics and Topical Trends

Abstract

Despite the growing importance of eating disorders in society and academic literature, only a few bibliometric review studies using bibliometric analysis were available. Hence, this study aimed to explore and uncover hidden research topics and patterns in articles in terms of eating disorders over the last 30 years. In total, 4111 articles on eating disorders were analyzed using bibliometrics, network analyses, and structural topic modeling as the basis of mixed methods. In addition to general statistics about the journal, several key research topics, such as eating disorder (ED) treatment, ED symptoms, factors triggering ED, family related factors, eating behaviors, and social factors, were found based on topic correlations. This study found the key research variables that are frequently studied with EDs, such as AN, BN, BED, and ARFID. This study may help clinicians comprehend important risk factors associated with EDs. Moreover, the findings about key ED research topics and their association can be helpful for future studies to construct a comprehensive ED research framework. To our knowledge, this is the first study to use topic modeling in an academic journal on EDs and examine the diversity in ED research over 30 years of published research.

Expanding the Role of Education in Eating Disorder Prevention: The Role of a Socio-Cultural Approach

“…ED prevention research, developing since the mid-1990s, has focused on medical and psychiatric perspectives, with emphasis on diagnosis and treatment. Historical, retrospective bibliometric analyses of ED studies by Park & Kim (2022), Almenara (2022), Shah, Ahmad, Khan & Sun (2022), covering the last 40 years, highlighted that the diagnosis, epidemiology, course and outcome of ED are the priority components of ED research, and that the majority of the most highly-cited papers were related to either the development of assessment instruments or the course and outcome of ED.…”

Demographics, psychiatric comorbidities, and hospital outcomes across eating disorder types in adolescents and youth: insights from US hospitals data

“…Approximately 30 million Americans are affected by eating disorders (EDs) at least once in their lifetime (1,2), with an estimated economic burden of $64.7 billion per year (3). According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, types of eating disorders include anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), avoidant restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other specified feeding and EDs (4).…”