Intensified research on tuberculosis in the Western Pacific Region: a bibliometric analysis, 2000–2019

Abstract

“Intensified TB research and innovation” is one of the three pillars of the End TB Strategy. To assess achievements and gaps in tuberculosis (TB) research productivity in countries and areas of the Western Pacific Region quantitatively, a bibliometric analysis was carried out by examining trends in the numbers of publications on TB indexed in PubMed between 2000 and 2019 and by comparing them with trends in publications on other selected major infectious diseases for the same period. The number of publications on TB in the Region increased by 3.2 times during the period, from 534 in 2000–2004 to 1714 in 2015–2019, as compared with 2.9 times each for HIV, hepatitis and malaria. The number increased by 46% in 2005–2009, 79% in 2010–2014 and 23% in 2015–2019, as compared with each previous 5-year period. The average annual growth rate between 2000 and 2018 was 8.8%. China accounted for 34.8% of the total number of publications on TB in the Region. Increases in TB research were observed in most countries and areas in the Region, particularly in those with a high TB burden. The number of publications on TB remained low, however, in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Mongolia and Pacific island countries. Countries are encouraged to implement the set of actions proposed in the Global Strategy for TB Research and Innovation to accelerate progress towards ending TB.

Clinical pharmacy services for tuberculosis management: a systematic review

“…Our search strategy retrieved relevant studies of pulmonary TB conducted primarily in high-burden countries; however, studies focusing on clinical pharmacy services for TB in other countries were limited. We found this in line with the trend of increasing TB research in high-burden countries with more context-specific research to meet its own national strategic plan goals toward TB elimination, where fundamental and epidemiology research is mainly conducted (Cazabon et al, 2017;World Health Organization, 2017;Nafade et al, 2018;Morishita et al, 2020), making studies on clinical pharmacy services in TB relatively uncommon. A review also highlighted this by stating that clinical pharmacy services primarily target specific medical conditions, but TB was not mentioned (Rotta et al, 2017).…”

“…In the studies we reviewed, clinical pharmacy services were given as a supplementary service, focusing on its utilization to enhance an existing TB care program, supported by multiple relevant patientrelated data sources to provide the service appropriately (World Health Organization, 2017;World Health Organization, 2019c;Mahmoud, 2019). This practical type of study falls into an operational research category to maximize the effectiveness and efficiency of interventions that can contribute to achieving the desired TB outcome (Kumar et al, 2020;Morishita et al, 2020). However, the absence of sound randomized studies of clinical pharmacy services as part of existing TB care indicated that accurate assessments of the effect of clinical pharmacy services within TB care are difficult.…”

Financing for tuberculosis prevention, diagnosis and treatment services in the Western Pacific Region in 2005–2020

“…While TB research outputs in the Region as a whole increased by 8.8% annually between 2000 and 2018, there are still major knowledge gaps in some countries such as the Lao People's Democratic Republic and Mongolia. 10 Operational research can generate context-specific evidence to inform decision-making and improvements to national programmes, and thus requires adequate funding.…”

A bibliometric analysis of global research performance on tuberculosis (2011–2020): Time for a global approach to support high-burden countries

“…The study by Nafade et al ., in 2018 analyzed global trends of research before 2016, and the analysis by Igwaran and Edoamodu only targeted Africa; another by Morishita et al ., targeted the Western Pacific. [ 19 20 21 ] A study with a global aspect was, therefore, necessary. This study aimed to perform a bibliometric analysis of TB research from 2011 to 2020 to discover research performance and trends from a global perspective.…”