Exploring the scientific context of pulmonary tuberculosis in humans and malnutrition: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

This study aimed to provide a bibliometric analysis of the literature on pulmonary tuberculosis in humans. An extensive search of articles on the subject was carried out through the Web of Science, Scopus, CINAHL, and Medline/Pubmed database using a series of keywords, including publications from 2012 to 2022, in English. Publication quality was analyzed using impact metrics, productivity metrics, and mapping to word density and author network. Of the 224 selected articles, most are from the United States, Ethiopia, and the United Kingdom and had international collaboration, the average of articles published in the last 5 years is 3 publications/year, with a publication peak in 2021, we identified 11 subject areas, highlighting: Medicine with 104 publications, Biochemistry and Nursing with 23 publications each, the H-index, represents the number of citations received for each of the articles in descending order, showed 37:37 citations. In the mapping for word density or connection strength, of the 542 terms, 20 words were selected because they presented more expressive density. We conclude that although tuberculosis is a much-discussed topic, little is related to the predictor word malnutrition, which makes it possible to perceive that there is little research focused on the relationship between the terms. Therefore, more studies must be carried out with this bias, as this way there will be an expansion in the range of information on the subject, which may provide a more appropriate approach and treatment for the patient.