Global production of systematic reviews on population health issues in the Middle East and North Africa: preliminary results of a systematic overview and bibliometric analysis

ID: 

257

Session: 

Poster session 2

Date: 

Monday 17 September 2018 - 12:30 to 14:00

All authors in correct order:

Chaabna K1, Cheema S1, Abraham A1, Alrouh H1, Mamtani R1
1 Institute for Population Health, Weill Cornell Medicine, Qatar
Presenting author and contact person

Presenting author:

Karima Chaabna

Contact person:

Karima Chaabna
Abstract text
Background:
A comprehensive description of systematic review (SR) and meta-analysis methodology has been available since the first version of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews in 2008.

Objectives:
We aimed to assess the production of SRs of observational studies on population health issues in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Methods:
Two independent review authors systematically searched MEDLINE (2008 to 2016) and identified 5747 reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Following a multi-stage screening process, we included 387 SRs in our overview. We retrieved citation numbers for each SR from Google Scholar. We retrieved the impact factor of the journal for the publication year of the included SRs from the ISI Journal Citation Report.

Results:
The annual numbers of SRs on MENA population health increased significantly (P < 0.0001, linear regression): from 15 in 2008 to 81 in 2016. We also identified statistically significant increases in the number of SRs published by authors affiliated to institutions located inside MENA and/or neighboring countries (P value < 0.0001), by authors located outside MENA (P = 0.001) and by collaborating authors affiliated to institutions located outside MENA and inside the region and/or in MENA’s neighboring countries (P < 0.001). Furthermore, these SRs were published in journals with an IF ranging from 0 to 47.8 (median = 2.1). Linear statistically significant increases in the numbers of published SRs were demonstrated in journal impact factor (IF) categories (IF = 0 to 2, P = 0.0012; IF = 2 to 4, P = 0.0003; IF = 4 to 6, P = 0.026). Additionally, annual numbers of citations to the SRs varied between 0 and 471 (median = 7). While each year, a couple of published SRs were getting more than 50 annual citations, there were linear statistically significant increases in the numbers of published SRs with annual numbers of citations of 0 to 10 (P = 0.00014) and at 10 to 50 (P = 0.0021).

Conclusions:
From 2008 to 2016 the annual number of published SRs on population health issues in the MENA and the number of collaborations between authors from inside and outside the region increased.

Patient or healthcare consumer involvement:
Characterizing the epidemiology of population health issues in the MENA is essential to build evidence-based health policy and prevention and treatment programs.

Relevance to patients and consumers: 

Our research demonstrated that there is an increased number of systematic reviews characterizing the epidemiology of population health issues in the MENA region and these systematic reviews are increasingly cited in the medical literature. Hence, this increase in data on the epidemiology of population health issue in the region is essential to build evidence-based health policy, precision public health prevention strategies, and treatment program that will benefits the patients in the MENA region.