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
. 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.

PubMed Disclaimer

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.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Brugnara L, Marx M. Act now! Covid-19 pandemic: the coordinated support of the international community to low- and middle-income countries is needed immediately. Int J Qual Health Care. 2020. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ahmed S, Mvalo T, Akech S, et al.Protecting children in low-income and middle-income countries from COVID-19. BMJ Glob Health. 2020;5(5):e002844. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Martinez-Alvarez M, Jarde A, Usuf E, et al.COVID-19 pandemic in west Africa. Lancet Glob Health. 2020;8(5):e631–2. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sohrabi C, Alsafi Z, O'Neill N, et al.World Health Organization declares global emergency: A review of the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19). Int J Surg. 2020;76:71–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Mbow M, Lell B, Jochems SP, et al.COVID-19 in Africa: Dampening the storm? Science. 2020;369(6504):624–6. - PubMed

Grants and funding