Artículo

A bibliometric analysis of COVID-19 research in Latin America and the Caribbean

Resumen

Introduction: Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is one of the regions most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, there is scarce literature addressing the research strategies developed in LAC to face COVID-19. Objective: To quantify and assess the production of scientific publications about COVID-19 in 32 countries of LAC between January 1 and July 31, 2020. Materials and methods: Bibliometric study. Scientific papers on COVID-19 conducted in LAC or re-porting data pertaining to LAC and published between January 1 to July 31, 2020, were searched in the Scopus, PubMed, and LILACS databases. A subgroup analysis including only original research articles was performed to determine the contribution of LAC countries to research on COVID-19, and standardization measures (# of articles per million people) were applied to compare the country-spe-cific production of this type of articles. Results: A total of 1 291 publications were retrieved. Overall, most of them were non-original research articles (81.72%), and the countries with the highest scientific production were Brazil (43.91%) and Mexico (9.14%). However, after applying the standardization measures, Chile was the country with the highest production of original articles (0.58 per million inhabitants). Regarding original studies (n=236), cross-sectional design was the most common (25.84%). Diagnosis and treatment of the disease was the main research focus (n=354; 27.42%). However, in the subgroup analysis (n=236), epidemiology and surveillance were the most prevalent research focus (n=57; 24.15%). Conclusions: During the study period, non-original research articles were predominant in the scientific production of the LAC region, and interventional studies were scarce among original articles, while the cross-sectional design predominated. Further research with a better quality of evidence should be performed in these countries to contribute to the making of health policies aimed at easing the burden of COVID-19 in the region and preparing for future pandemics. © 2021, Universidad Nacional de Colombia. All rights reserved.
Espinosa, Isabel (57222222005); Cuenca, Víctor (57329081100); Eissa-Garcés, Ahmed (57224992729); Sisa, Ivan (54421256700)
2021
10.15446/revfacmed.v69n3.94520
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85117072944&doi=10.15446%2frevfacmed.v69n3.94520&partnerID=40&md5=214c9c0d0fd00cfa0b91ac4d3e82a67c
Universidad San Francisco de Quito USFQ, College of Health Sciences, Medical School, Quito, Ecuador
All Open Access; Gold Open Access; Green Open Access
Scopus
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