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. 2020 Oct 13:10:2235042X20965283.
doi: 10.1177/2235042X20965283. eCollection 2020 Jan-Dec.

A bibliometric analysis of multimorbidity from 2005 to 2019

Mohamed Ali Ag Ahmed  1   2 , José Almirall  1   2 , Patrice Ngangue  1   2 , Marie-Eve Poitras  1   2 , Martin Fortin  1   2
Affiliations

A bibliometric analysis of multimorbidity from 2005 to 2019

Mohamed Ali Ag Ahmed et al. J Comorb. .

Abstract

Context: Multimorbidity is frequently seen in primary care. We aimed to identify and analyze publications on multimorbidity, including those that most influenced this field.

Method: A bibliometric analysis of publications from 2005 to 2019 in the PubMed database containing "multimorbidity" or "multi-morbidity" identified with the tool iCite. We analyzed the number of publications, total citations, the article-level metric Relative Citation Ratio (RCR), type of study, and journals with the most cited articles.

Results: The number of publications using "multimorbidity" has continuously increased since 2005 (2005-2009: 138; 2010-2014: 823; 2015-2019: 3068). The median number of total citations per article was 3. The median RCR was 1.04. Articles with RCR at or above the 97th percentile (RCR = 7.43) were analyzed in detail (n = 104). In 34 publications of this subgroup (33%), the word multimorbidity was used but was not the subject of study. The remaining top 70 publications included 32 observational studies, 22 reviews, five guideline statements, three analysis papers, two randomized trials, three qualitative studies, two measurement development reports, and one conceptual framework development report. The publications were produced by authors from 32 countries. They were published in 37 different journals, ranging from one to four articles in the same journal.

Conclusions: We found a continuous increase in the number of publications about multimorbidity since 2005. However, our study suggests that the numbers should be considered only a general trend because multimorbidity was not the main subject in 33% of publications in a subgroup of 104 analyzed in detail.

Keywords: Multimorbidity; bibliometric study; relative citation ratio.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Number of publications on multimorbidity per year from 2005 to 2019. The arrow indicates the year (2008) in which the word multimorbidity was introduced as a medical subject Heading (MeSH) for indexing articles for PUBMED.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Total citations of each of the 70 publications on multimorbidity with a value of the relative citation ratio (RCR) at or above the 97th percentile. Each bar in the figure represents a publication.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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