Does health-related poverty publication landscape reflect global needs in the light of the current poverty rebound?

Abstract

Background: After nearly a quarter-century of declining poverty, the numbers are rising again significantly. This is due not only to effects of climate change but also to the COVID-19 pandemics and armed conflict. Combined with the enormous health impacts, that will cause misery and health care costs worldwide. Therefore, this study provides background information on the global research landscape on poverty and health to help researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers determine the best way to address this threat.

Results: The USA is the key player, dealing mainly with domestic issues. European countries are also involved but tend to be more internationally oriented. Developing countries are underrepresented, with Nigeria standing out. A positive correlation was found between publication numbers and economic strength, while the relationship between article numbers and multidimensional poverty was negatively correlated.

Conclusions: These findings highlight the need for advanced networking and the benefits of cross-disciplinary research to mitigate the coming impacts.

Keywords: Famines; Healthcare; Impoverishment; Inequality; Malnutrition; Research patterns.

Fig. 1

Development of the number of articles, the number of citations, and the citation rate (display: × 5) from 1965 to 2020

Fig. 2

Cluster Analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords (threshold at least 35 occurrences), red cluster: Industrial countries (USA) and related burdens of poverty, green cluster: children and families and related burdens of poverty, blue: determinants and health care, yellow cluster: developing countries (Africa) and related burdens of poverty

Fig. 3

Geographical distribution of publication output on Poverty and Health (P&H). A Number of articles per country. B Development of the relative proportion of the most publishing countries on the publication output on R&H in 4-year intervals from 1981 to 2020

Fig. 4

Citation parameters. A Number of citations per country. B Citation rate per country (threshold > 30 articles)

Fig. 5

International network (display threshold at least 4 collaboration articles), numbers in brackets (number of publications / number of collaboration articles)

Fig. 6

Association between number of articles and population living in multidimensional poverty (Multidimensional Poverty Index) [4] of developing countries. A Linear regression. B Residuals of 20 most publishing developing countries. Yellow: negative residuals, blue: positive residual

Fig. 7

Search procedure