Global research trends at the intersection of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and traditional, integrative, and complementary and alternative medicine: a bibliometric analysis
Tóm tắt
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, and responsible for a global pandemic. Despite there being no known vaccines or medicines that prevent or cure COVID-19, many traditional, integrative, complementary and alternative medicines (TICAMs) have been touted as the solution, as well as researched as a potential remedy globally. This study presents a bibliometric analysis of global research trends at the intersection of TICAM and COVID-19.
SCOPUS, MEDLINE, EMBASE, AMED and PSYCINFO databases were searched on July 5, 2020, with results being exported on the same day. All publication types were included, however, articles were only deemed eligible if they made mention of one or more TICAMs for the potential prevention, treatment, and/or management of COVID-19 or a health issue indirectly resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. The following eligible article characteristics were extracted: title; author names, affiliations, and countries; DOI; publication language; publication type; publication year; journal (and whether it is TICAM-focused); 2019 impact factor, and TICAMs mentioned.
A total of 296 eligible articles were published by 1373 unique authors at 977 affiliations across 56 countries. The most common countries associated with author affiliation included China, the United States, India and Italy. The vast majority of articles were published in English, followed by Chinese. Eligible articles were published across 157 journals, of which 33 were TICAM-focused; a total of 120 journals had a 2019 impact factor, which ranged from 0.17 to 60.392. A total of 327 TICAMs were mentioned across eligible articles, with the most common ones including: traditional Chinese medicine (
This study provides researchers and clinicians with a greater knowledge of the characteristics of articles that been published globally at the intersection of COVID-19 and TICAM to date. At a time where safe and effective vaccines and medicines for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 have yet to be discovered, this study provides a current snapshot of the quantity and characteristics of articles written at the intersection of TICAM therapies and COVID-19.
Từ khóa
Tài liệu tham khảo
World Health Organization. Q&a on coronaviruses (COVID-19). 2020; Assessed 24 October 2020: https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/question-and-answers-hub/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses.
World Health Organization. Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic assessed 24 October 2020; 2020. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.
Liu M, Caputi TL, Dredze M, Kesselheim AS, Ayers JW. Internet searches for unproven COVID-19 therapies in the United States. JAMA Intern Med. 2020;29:1116.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. In the news: coronavirus and “alternative” treatments; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/in-the-news-coronavirus-and-alternative-treatments.
Food and Drug Administration. Coronavirus update: FDA and FTC warn seven companies selling fraudulent products that claim to treat or prevent COVID-19; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.fda.gov/news-events/press-announcements/coronavirus-update-fda-and-ftc-warn-seven-companies-selling-fraudulent-products-claim-treat-or.
National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China. Diagnosis and Treatment Protocol for COVID-19 (Trial Version 7). Assessed 07 June 07 2020: http://en.nhc.gov.cn/2020-03/29/c_78469.htm.
Cyranoski D. China is promoting coronavirus treatments based on unproven traditional medicines. Nature. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01284-x.
Ministry of AYUSH. Advisory for corona virus— homoeopathy for prevention of corona virus infections, Unani medicines useful in symptomatic management of corona virus infection. Online document at Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1600895.
Government of Canada. Health products that make false or misleading claims to prevent, treat or cure COVID-19 may put your health at risk; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://healthycanadians.gc.ca/recall-alert-rappel-avis/hc-sc/2020/72659a-eng.php.
Australian Government Department of Health Therapeutic Goods Administration. Warning about products claiming to treat or prevent the novel coronavirus; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/warning-about-products-claiming-treat-or-prevent-novel-coronavirus.
Helfgott Research Institute. Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Health and Medicine COVID-19 Support Registry. Online document at Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://redcap.nunm.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=PE3EHAYDT3.
World Health Organization. Regional Office for Africa. (2020c) WHO supports scientifically-proven traditional medicine. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.afro.who.int/news/who-supports-scientifically-proven-traditional-medicine.
Radanliev P, De Roure D, Walton R, Van Kleek M, Santos O, Montalvo RM, et al. What country, university or research institute, performed the best on COVID-19? Bibliometric analysis of scientific literature. EPMA J. 2005;11(3):311.
Chahrour M, Assi S, Bejjani M, Nasrallah AA, Salhab H, Fares M, et al. A bibliometric analysis of Covid-19 research activity: a call for increased output. Cureus. 2020;12:3.
Hossain MM. Current status of global research on novel coronavirus disease (Covid-19): A bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping. Hossain MM. Current status of global research on novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19): a bibliometric analysis and knowledge mapping [version 1. 2020 May 18.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (2020). Health Topics A–Z. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/atoz.
Ng JY, Boon HS, Thompson AK, Whitehead CR. Making sense of “alternative”, “complementary”, “unconventional” and “integrative” medicine: exploring the terms and meanings through a textual analysis. BMC Complement Altern Med. 2016;16(1):134.
Clarivate Analytics. Cites journal citation reports; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://jcr.clarivate.com/.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Traditional Chinese medicine: what you need to know; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/traditional-chinese-medicine-what-you-need-to-know.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. Ayurvedic medicine. In: Depth; 2020. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/ayurvedic-medicine-in-depth.
Vellingiri B, Jayaramayya K, Iyer M, Narayanasamy A, Govindasamy V, Giridharan B, et al. COVID-19: a promising cure for the global panic. Sci Total Environ. 2020;4:138277.
Ammon U. The dominance of English as a language of science: effects on other languages and language communities. Walter de Gruyter; 2011.
Lariviere V, Kiermer V, MacCallum CJ, McNutt M, Patterson M, Pulverer B, et al. A simple proposal for the publication of journal citation distributions. BioRxiv. 2016;6:062109.
Index N. What’s wrong with the journal impact factor in 5 graphs; 2018. Assessed 07 June 07 2020: https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/whats-wrong-with-the-jif-in-five-graphs.
Gong Y, Ma TC, Xu YY, Yang R, Gao LJ, Wu SH, et al. Early research on COVID-19: a bibliometric analysis. Innovation. 2020;1(2):100027.
Yang F, Zhang BS, Wang Q, Zhang Q, Han J, Wang L, et al. Analysis of the global situation of COVID-19 research based on Bibliometrics. In: Qing, Zhang, Qi, Han, Junming, Wang, Lijie, Wu, Xinying MM, Pan, Fengming MM, Xue F, editors. Analysis of the global situation of COVID-19 research based on Bibliometrics (5/8/2020); 2020.
Sa’ed HZ, Al-Jabi SW. Mapping the situation of research on coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19): a preliminary bibliometric analysis during the early stage of the outbreak. BMC Infect Dis. 2020 Dec;20(1):1–8.
Zyoud SH, Zyoud AH. Coronavirus disease-19 in environmental fields: a bibliometric and visualization mapping analysis. Environ Dev Sustain. 2020;1:1–29.
Fan J, Gao Y, Zhao N, Dai R, Zhang H, Feng X, et al. Bibliometric analysis on COVID-19: a comparison of research between English and Chinese studies. Front Public Health. 2020;8:477.