Development of the Arabic Health Measures database: A bibliometric analysis of Arabic health related measures

Abstract

Objectives To develop an open access database of Arabic health measures intended for use by researchers and health care providers along with a bibliometric analysis of the measures included in the database.Design A search was conducted up to Dec 31, 2021 in Pubmed, EMBASE, CINAHL, Sage, Springer and Elsevier for published articles or abstracts with key words “Arabic” AND “translation”, “adaptation” OR “validation”. Information on the measure and the methodology used in the study were then entered into a database. An open access platform was developed to allow users to search for measures according to their needs. A bibliometric analysis of the articles and measures was then conducted. Results A total of 894 publications met the inclusion criteria. The articles discussed 716 measures that were developed using participants from at least 38 countries. The number of measures for adults was five-fold greater than for children. Mental health was the most frequent construct assessed (11.5%) followed by “function/disability” measures (10.6%). The majority of measures (54%) required five minutes or less to complete. Approximately 17% of the tools were available directly from the article. Saudi Arabia and Lebanon had the greatest number of publications with 217 (23%) and 114 (12%, respectively). The majority of the publications included reporting of the validation and reliability of the instruments (64% and 56%, respectively).ConclusionThere is a paucity of research on the quantity and quality of Arabic health measures. Similar to previous reviews, we found the number of publications on Arabic measures to be limited in comparison to those in English, however it is encouraging that the number of publications appear to be steadily increasing over the past decade. While we found the majority of publications reported on psychometric testing, we are unable to comment on the quality of the methodology used and further investigation into this area is recommended. As the Arabic Health Measures database will facilitate the search for health instruments that have published data on their development, this will increase their visibility and use in research and clinical settings.