Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2018 Jul 25;8(7):e022806.
doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022806.

Bibliometric analysis of gaps in research on asbestos-related diseases: declining emphasis on public health over 26 years

Ro-Ting Lin  1   2 , Matthew John Soeberg  2 , Lung-Chang Chien  3 , Scott Fisher  4 , Jukka Takala  5 , Richard Lemen  6 , Tim Driscoll  7 , Ken Takahashi  2
Affiliations

Bibliometric analysis of gaps in research on asbestos-related diseases: declining emphasis on public health over 26 years

Ro-Ting Lin et al. BMJ Open. .

Abstract

Objectives: The global burden of asbestos-related diseases (ARDs) is significant, and most of the world's population live in countries where asbestos use continues. We examined the gaps between ARD research and suggestions of WHO and the International Labour Organization on prevention.

Methods: From the Web of Science, we collected data on all articles published during 1991-2016 and identified a subset of ARD-related articles. We classified articles into three research areas-laboratory, clinical and public health-and examined their time trends. For all and the top 11 countries publishing ARD-related articles, we calculated the proportions of all ARD-related articles that were in each of the three areas, the average rates of ARD-related articles over all articles, and the average annual per cent changes of rates.

Results: ARD-related articles (n=14 284) accounted for 1.3‰ of all articles in 1991, but this had declined to 0.8‰ by 2016. Among the three research areas, the clinical area accounted for the largest proportion (65.0%), followed by laboratory (26.5%) and public health (24.9%). The public health area declined faster than the other areas, at -5.7% per year. Discrepancies were also observed among the top 11 countries regarding emphasis on public health research, with Finland and Italy having higher, and China and the Netherlands lower, emphases.

Conclusions: There is declining emphasis on the public health area in the ARD-related literature. Under the ongoing global situation of ARD, primary prevention will remain key for some time, warranting efforts to rectify the current trend in ARD-related research.

Keywords: asbestos; asbestos-related diseases; public health; research governance.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: RL testifies in asbestos litigation.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Trend in the number and proportion of scientific articles from 1991 to 2016. ARD-related articles=articles with a theme of asbestos and ARDs. Articles were defined as articles or reviews belonging to any of the three research areas (see online supplementary file, table S1) in InCites (Clarivate Analytics). ARD, asbestos-related diseases.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Trend in the number and proportion of articles by research area. ARD-related publications=articles with a theme of asbestos and ARDs. Articles were defined as articles or reviews belonging to any of three research areas (see online supplementary file, table S1) in InCites (Clarivate Analytics). ARD, asbestos-related diseases.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Rate ratio of ARD-related articles in the public health area in each of the top 11 publishing countries compared with the average for the top 11 countries ARD-related articles=articles with a theme of asbestos and ARDs. Red dotted line represents the average of the top 11 countries. The rate ratio was estimated using a generalised additive mixed model with a Poisson distribution by comparing the rate of the public health area of ARD-related articles of each country to the average rate of the public health area of asbestos-related articles in these 11 countries (rate ratio=1), after adjusting for temporal variation. Other covariates, specifically asbestos consumption and age-adjusted mortality rate of mesothelioma, were not included in the final model because they did not reach statistical significance. ARD, asbestos-related disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. Elimination of asbestos-related diseases. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. 2006. http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/69479/1/WHO_SDE_OEH_06.03_eng.pdf (accessed 26 Nov 2017).
    1. World Health Organization. Chrysotile asbestos. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization. 2014. http://www.who.int/ipcs/assessment/public_health/asbestos/en/ (accessed 6 Jun 2017).
    1. International Labour Organization. Resolution concerning asbestos. International Labour Organization. 2006. http://www.ilo.org/safework/info/standards-and-instruments/WCMS_108556/l... (accessed 5 Dec 2017).
    1. Kazan-Allen L. Chronology of national asbestos bans. 2017. http://www.ibasecretariat.org/chron_ban_list.php
    1. Marsili D, Terracini B, Santana VS, et al. . Prevention of asbestos-related disease in countries currently using asbestos. Int J Environ Res Public Health 2016;13:494 10.3390/ijerph13050494 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources