Quantity and quality of obesity-related research in Arab countries: assessment and comparative analysis

Sweileh, Waleed M.; Zyoud, Sa’ed H.; Al-Jabi, Samah W.; Sawalha, Ansam F.

doi:10.1186/1478-4505-12-33

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…In this study, Tunisia and Sudan had the highest research productivity in the field leishmaniasis. Previous bibliometric studies have assessed different issues in biomedical field in the Arab world [21,59,61,66,[79][80][81].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arab world’s growing contribution to global leishmaniasis research (1998–2017): a bibliometric study

Al-Jabi

2019

BMC Public Health

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Background Leishmaniasis is a parasitic disease caused by a protozoan of the Leishmania genus, and is considered a neglected tropical disease. It still remains a main public health concern at global level and in Arab world mainly in low-income countries. Therefore, this study was designed to evaluate the Arab world’s growing contribution to global leishmaniasis research. Methods This study describes a bibliometric review of all leishmaniasis research publications published between January 1998 and December 2017 indexed on the Scopus database. Results The total number of publications published at global level was 17,570 papers, which achieves an average annual productivity of 878.50 papers publications. Brazil was responsible for the greatest output with the total number of publications of 3865 followed by the Unites States ( n = 2729), India ( n = 2119), the United Kingdom ( n = 1363), and Spain ( n = 1274). By limiting the analysis to the publications that have been published by Arab world, the research productivity was 993 papers, which represents 5.65% of total research output at global level in research regarding leishmaniasis. Tunisia was responsible for the greatest output from Arab world with the total number of publications of 297 followed by Sudan ( n = 192), Saudi Arabia ( n = 131), Morocco ( n = 119) and Egypt ( n = 67). Since 1998, the growth of publications on leishmaniasis fluctuates, overall showing a rising trend in both global and Arab world. There is a highly significant correlation between publication productivity related to leishmaniasis at global level and the Arab world (r = 0.936; p -value< 0.001). Leishmaniasis treatment, intracellular mechanism of infection, and lifecycle of leishmania are the major current hot topics for the research in this subject at global level and the Arab world. Conclusions The current study presents a novel review of the current Arab leishmaniasis-related research, and how these results are related to worldwide output. In comparison to the global research output, the Arab world produced less leishmaniasis research. The data presented in the current study by this innovative approach may serve relevant researchers to direct the global leishmaniasis research to Arab counties in which leishmaniasis is endemic.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Arab world’s growing contribution to global leishmaniasis research (1998–2017): a bibliometric study

Al-Jabi

2019

BMC Public Health

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“…The results of this and other studies should encourage further research into investigating behaviors associated with obesity and resulting chronic pain. Although there has been a recent emphasis on eating behavior and obesity-related research in Kuwait, it still lags behind most other countries 38. For many, there has also been an emphasis on more medical solutions to problems, such as bariatric surgery for obesity, rather than strict adherence to diet and exercise.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prevalence of chronic pain with neuropathic characteristics: a randomized telephone survey among medical center patients in Kuwait

Zghoul

Ross

Edwards

et al. 2017

JPR

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BackgroundChronic pain with neuropathic characteristics is considered to be an international health problem. However, surveys on the actual incidence of neuropathic pain have not been conducted in many Middle East countries, including Kuwait. The aim of this study was to examine the incidence of pain and medical comorbidities among a random sample of patients treated at a large medical center in Kuwait.MethodsA list of 1,000 patients was created from the hospital medical record system, and a telephone survey was conducted on 759 patients who responded to the phone call, of which 67.2% (N=510) participated. Those who stated that they had pain every day for the past 3 months were invited to answer additional questions about their pain.ResultsFifty-six percentage of those surveyed (N=283) reported experiencing chronic pain. Total average age was 49.2 years (SD=14.5), 45.5% were female, and 70.5% were Kuwaiti nationals. Most (74.3%) reported having diabetes and one-third (32.2%) showed evidence of neuropathic pain characteristics (mean DN4=2.8, SD=1.7). Other comorbid medical conditions were prevalent (48.4% hypertension, 30.4% arthritis, 22.6% heart disease, and 20.4% asthma) with an average of 2.3 (SD=1.3) medical problems per person. Those with pain tended to be older, female, unemployed, and overweight (p<0.01). The pain was mostly located in the lower extremities and those with neuropathic pain tended to report a higher intensity of pain and a higher frequency of seeking treatment for their pain in a clinic or hospital (p<0.05). Most relied on over-the-counter medications for their pain (38.1%). Very few were taking prescription medication for their pain.ConclusionThis survey suggests that chronic pain is more prevalent in a medical population in Kuwait than previously anticipated. Health care services and behavioral interventions to improve lifestyle changes in Kuwait and other Arab countries are needed to positively impact pain and reduce other comorbidities.

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“…The WoS generates a count of the total number of original articles, total citations, and the value of the h-index. Scientific output was evaluated based on a methodology developed and used in other bibliometric studies [42][43][44][45][46][47]. The collected data were used to generate the following information: (a) total and trends of contributions in infectious diseases research up until the specified date of December 31, 2012; (b) Arab countries research productivity; (c) journals in which researchers from the Arab world were published; (d) h-index for retrieved publications from Arab countries; and finally (e) comparison of the results obtained from Arab countries with those obtained from non-Arab countries such as Turkey, Iran, and Israel.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of research productivity of Arab countries in the field of infectious diseases using Web of Science database

et al. 2015

Self Cite

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BackgroundTo meet the future challenges of infectious diseases and limit the spread of multidrug resistant microorganisms, a better understanding of published studies in the field of infectious diseases is needed. The objective of this study was to analyze the quantity and quality of research activity in the field of infectious diseases in Arab countries and compare it with that in non-Arab countries.MethodsDocuments published in Arab countries within the research category of “infectious diseases” were extracted and analyzed using the Web of Science database. The data analyzed represent research productivity during the time interval between 1900 – 2012.ResultsWorldwide, the total number of documents published in the field of infectious diseases up to 2012 was 227,188. A total of 2,408 documents in the field of infectious diseases were published in Arab countries, which represents 1.06% of worldwide research output. Research output from Arab countries in the field of infectious diseases was low for decades. However, approximately a five-fold increase was observed in the past decade. Arab countries ranked 56th to 218th on the standard competition ranking (SCR) in worldwide publications in the field of infectious diseases. Egypt, with a total publication of 464 (19.27%) documents ranked first among Arab countries, while Kuwait University was the most productive institution with a total of 158 (6.56%) documents. Average citation per document published in Arab countries was 13.25 and the h-index was 64. Tuberculosis (230; 9.55%), malaria (223; 9.26%), and hepatitis (189; 7.8%) were the top three infectious diseases studied as according to the retrieved documents.ConclusionThe present data reveals that some Arab countries contribute significantly to the field of infectious diseases. However, Arab countries need to work harder to bridge the gap in this field. Compared with non-Arab countries in the Middle East, research output from Arab countries was high, but more efforts are needed to enhance the quality of this output. Future research in the field should be encouraged and correctly directed.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/2049-9957-4-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Quantity and quality of obesity-related research in Arab countries: assessment and comparative analysis

Cited by 31 publications

References 36 publications

Arab world’s growing contribution to global leishmaniasis research (1998–2017): a bibliometric study

Arab world’s growing contribution to global leishmaniasis research (1998–2017): a bibliometric study

Prevalence of chronic pain with neuropathic characteristics: a randomized telephone survey among medical center patients in Kuwait

Assessment of research productivity of Arab countries in the field of infectious diseases using Web of Science database

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