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. 2021 Jul 3;13(4):379-381.
doi: 10.1093/inthealth/ihaa088.

A disparity in the number of studies related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries

Takuma Usuzaki  1 , Shuji Chiba  2 , Minoru Shimoyama  1 , Mami Ishikuro  3   4 , Taku Obara  3   4   5
Affiliations

A disparity in the number of studies related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries

Takuma Usuzaki et al. Int Health. .

Abstract

Background: There may be a difference in the number of articles about COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 between low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) and high-income countries (HICs).

Methods: We analyzed authors' affiliations from 36 432 articles related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2. We introduced logarithmic density and compared the number of articles and logarithmic density of LMICs with those of HICs.

Results: The number of articles and the logarithmic density of LMICs were lower than those of HICs (p<0.0001 for both).

Conclusions: There was a disparity in the number of articles related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 between LMICs and HICs.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
A world choropleth map of the number of articles related to COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 published from 31 December 2019 to 28 August 2020 by country. The number of countries that published 0–50, 51–100, 101–150, 151–200, 201–250, 251–300, 301–350, 351–400 and >400 articles was 124, 13, 8, 4, 8, 1, 4, 1 and 18, respectively.
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