Place of the "Public health" in the Tunisian medical research on the cardiovascular diseases: a bibliometric study (Medline: 1988-2017)

Abstract

Background: The management of the cardiovascular diseases, main public health problem in Tunisia, is generating many difficulties that a socially responsible research should reflect them. The aim of this study is to assess dimensions of public health of Tunisian research on the cardiovascular diseases during thirty last years.

Methods: we conducted a bibliometric study relating to the public health information of the Tunisian cardiovascular papers indexed in the Medline database between January 1st 1988 and December 31st 2017. The following qualifiers were selected to define the public health dimension of paper: "epidemiology", "mortality", "statistics and numerical data", "economy", and "prevention and control".

Results: During thirty years (1988-2017), 176 references were identified and only 136 Tunisian publications were retained following the application of the inclusion criteria (first author affiliated in a Tunisian structure of health or research). The two medical specialties of "cardiology" and "Preventive medicine and Community" produced 47% of these articles. The selected publications were mainly original articles, monocentric studies, analytical, and written in French language for the national journal "La Tunisie Medicale". Among the 136 selected articles, 34 (25%) explored the ischemic heart diseases. "Epidemiology" and the "Prevention/Control" were two dimensions of the "Public health" the most studied in the Tunisian publications on the cardiovascular diseases, respectively in 84% and 44% of the cases.

Conclusion: The Tunisian publications in the cardiovascular field accompanied the epidemiologic transition along the three last decades. While they were focusing on the epidemiology and the prevention of the ischemic heart diseases. Other dimensions of public health must be treated on the set of the cardiovascular diseases, such as the economics and etiologics studies.