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. 2022 Feb 16;17(2):e0263981.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263981. eCollection 2022.

Characterising COVID-19 empirical research production in Latin America and the Caribbean: A scoping review

Cristián Mansilla  1 , Cristian A Herrera  2   3 , Laura Boeira  4 , Andrea Yearwood  5 , Analia S Lopez  6 , Luis E Colunga-Lozano  7 , Eva Brocard  8 , Tatiana Villacres  9 , Marcela Vélez  10 , Gabriel Di Paolantonio  11 , Ludovic Reveiz  12
Affiliations

Characterising COVID-19 empirical research production in Latin America and the Caribbean: A scoping review

Cristián Mansilla et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Introduction: The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) pandemic has struck Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) particularly hard. One of the crucial areas in the international community's response relates to accelerating research and knowledge sharing. The aim of this article is to map and characterise the existing empirical research related to COVID-19 in LAC countries and contribute to identify opportunities for strengthening future research.

Methods: In this scoping review, articles published between December 2019 and 11 November 2020 were selected if they included an empirical component (explicit scientific methods to collect and analyse primary data), LAC population was researched, and the research was about the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of publication status or language. MEDLINE, EMBASE, LILACS, Scielo, CENTRAL and Epistemonikos were searched. All titles and abstracts, and full texts were screened by two independent reviewers. Data from included studies was extracted by one reviewer and checked by a second independent reviewer.

Results: 14,406 records were found. After removing duplicates, 5,458 titles and abstracts were screened, of which 2,323 full texts were revised to finally include 1,626 empirical studies. The largest portion of research came from people/population of Brazil (54.6%), Mexico (19.1%), Colombia (11.2%), Argentina (10.4%), Peru (10.3%) and Chile (10%), while Caribbean countries concentrated 15.3%. The methodologies most used were cross-sectional studies (34.7%), simulation models (17.5%) and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (13.6%). Using a modified version of WHO's COVID-19 Coordinated Global Research Roadmap classification, 54.2% were epidemiological studies, followed by clinical management (22.3%) and candidate therapeutics (12.2%). Government and public funds support were reported in 19.2% of studies, followed by universities or research centres (9%), but 47.5% did not include any funding statement.

Conclusion: During the first part of the COVID-19 pandemic, LAC countries have contributed to the global research effort primarily with epidemiological studies, with little participation on vaccines research, meaning that this type of knowledge would be imported from elsewhere. Research agendas could be further coordinated aiming to enhance shared self-sufficiency regarding knowledge needs in the region.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Authors hold sole responsibility for the views expressed in the manuscript, which may not necessarily reflect the opinion or policy of the Pan American Health Organization nor the World Bank Group.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Flow diagram for the scoping review of empirical research related to COVID-19 in LAC countries.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Number of empirical studies published per month from February to 11 November 2020.
Note: The bar for November does not represent the total number of empirical studies published that month since the searches were conducted until November 11, 2020.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Number of publications per thematic areas of empirical research related to COVID-19 in LAC countries, using the WHO COVID-19 research roadmap.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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