Global palliative care research (2002-2020): bibliometric review and mapping analysis

Abstract

Background and objectiveDespite the important benefits of a bibliometric approach on mapping a research field, relatively little efforts have previously been conducted to map and analyse the global trends of palliative care (PC)-related research. This bibliometric review aimed to provide an overall picture and systematic mapping of the state of research trends within the field of PC internationally.MethodsScopus and Web of Science databases were searched to retrieve original articles focusing on PC between 2002 and 2020. Searching was conducted on 5 May 2020, and was updated on 6 May 2021. All retrieved articles were assessed by title and abstract, and the bibliometric metadata of those that met the inclusion criteria were downloaded for analysis. The results were analysed by VOSviewer and Gephi software.ResultsA total of 19,199 articles met the inclusion criteria. Significant growth of the number of published articles was reported by around five-fold from 2002 to 2020. The USA and UK were the most productive countries in terms of the number of papers published and citations. Weak collaborations were observed between low-income or middle-income countries and high-income countries. Cancer-related PC research was the most common focus. Seven clusters of research were identified and included heart failure and cancer prognosis, nursing home, pain and symptoms management, PC knowledge and attitudes, quality improvement of services, PC ethics, and the ongoing assessment of PC services.ConclusionsThere is a need to expand PC-related research to non-cancer diseases. More international research and cross-institutional cooperation is required to address more global PC issues and benefit from wider sharing of expertees, potentially leading to higher quality or more impactful studies. Setting up research agendas and priorities from funding bodies and institutions may also enhance cooperation among researchers.

Palliative Care Landscape in the COVID-19 Era: Bibliometric Analysis of Global Research

“…International collaboration in PC-related COVID-19 research was observed to be low, which resonates with the study findings of Abu-Odah et al, where the authors noted that from 2002 to 2020, collaboration in global PC research was low [ 10 ]. Despite the low rates of cooperation, the USA is still leading in international efforts, as underscored by this study.…”

“…Most previous reviews have revealed that PC research has focused on cancer-related issues [ 10 , 32 , 33 ], as cancer patients are one of the largest groups of patients with life-threatening illnesses. Although the included studies also concentrated more on the PC of the cancer patient population, their foci were more on different outcomes of interest, including pandemic-related mental crises and added symptom burden post-COVID-19, and the accessibility of PC services and alternatives for this cohort were emphasized.…”

“…We retrieved the literature from the aforementioned databases using the keywords adopted in previous review studies [ 10 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The “palliative care” term with its alternative search keywords (“palliative medicine” OR “hospice care” OR “terminal care” OR “end-of-life care” OR “end of life care” OR “palliat*” OR “life-limiting” OR “life-threatening” OR “incurable disease” OR “supportive care”) was searched.…”

“…A quick search in the World Health Organization (WHO) portal, as of 20th April 2022, shows up to 466,114 COVID-19-related publications in just 27 months since the start of the pandemic [ 9 ]. Despite the increasing number of publications, the pandemic has underscored significant research gaps that should be resolved, including within PC-related research [ 4 , 10 ]. The first COVID-19 bibliometric mapping was conducted by Chahrour et al [ 11 ], and it targeted only PubMed and WHO database publications between December 2019 and March 2020.…”

“…A total of 564 articles were identified from 39 countries, and China ranked the highest among these in terms of the number of publications, with 67% of the total number of publications. While the recent bibliometric mapping review conducted by Abu-Odah et al [ 10 ] focused on global PC between 2002 and 2020, this was not specific to COVID-19 and was restricted to the study of articles published in English. The study results showed that the USA and the UK were the two most productive countries in regard to PC-related publications.…”