The Increase of Global Health-Related Research in Otolaryngology

Abstract

Objectives:

Determine trends in global health-related otolaryngology publications.

Methods:

A systematic search of publications available on PubMed was undertaken reviewing two time periods ten years apart for the timeframes 1998 to 2002 (early time period) and 2008 to 2012 (recent time period) using the search word “otolaryngology” in combination with “developing countries,” “global health,” or “low income countries”; specifying human studies with abstracts in the English language. Publications related only to specific populations within the United States or Europe were excluded. The region of origin and type of publication were assigned as well as the author origin. Chi-squared and t-test analysis was used to identify trends.

Results:

In the 1998-2002 time period, a total of 11 publications met inclusion criteria for the study with a mean of 2.2+/-1.3 publications per year. In the 2008-2012 time period, a total of 39 publications met inclusion criteria with a mean of 7.6+/-3.1 publications per year. The 354% increase in global health-related publications identified between the two study periods was statistically significant (P = 0.01). Eighteen percent of primary authors were from high-income countries in the early time period versus 38% in the recent time period (P = 0.028). Asia and Africa were the most common region of origin in the recent time period with 49% and 23% of publications, respectively.

Conclusions:

There is a significant increased volume of global health-related publications in English language otolaryngology journals over the past decade, providing strong evidence of the increasing trend of global health as an academic pursuit within otolaryngology.