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
. 2025 Jun 15:56:103139.
doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2025.103139. eCollection 2025 Aug.

Global trends of positive deviance research in public health: A bibliometric analysis (1976-2024)

Mayumi Mizutani  1 , Harumi Bando  2 , Sofi Oktaviani  3   4 , Naoko Nishitani  1 , Junko Nishimura  1 , Ritsuko Nishide  5 , Susumu Tanimura  3
Affiliations

Global trends of positive deviance research in public health: A bibliometric analysis (1976-2024)

Mayumi Mizutani et al. Prev Med Rep. .

Abstract

Objective: The positive deviance approach is a community-based strategy that promotes behavioral and social change to improve health outcomes and demonstrates effectiveness even in resource-limited settings. Although the number of scientific studies on positive deviance has increased, comprehensive quantitative assessments of its overall trends remain lacking. This study conducted a bibliometric analysis to analyze global trends and key themes in positive deviance research within public health over the past 50 years (1976-2024).

Methods: We used data from Scopus and Web of Science, examining publications including the term "positive devian*" alongside "public health" or "community health." The analysis covered articles and reviews published from 1976 to 2024. Additionally, we conducted descriptive analysis, network analysis, and thematic mapping.

Results: We identified 319 publications in 219 journals in the studied period. Contributions were made from 45 countries, including 25 low- or middle-income countries (55.6 %). Notably, 106 papers (33.2 %) and 30 countries (66.7 %) involved international collaboration, with the United States leading in both productivity and collaboration. Thematic mapping indicated that high-income countries prioritized motor themes (well-developed, relevant thematic areas) such as "obesity" and "resilience" and emerging themes like "quality improvement" and "primary care." Conversely, lower-income countries focused on motor themes like "stunting" and "wasting" and emerging themes like "qualitative" research and "malaria."

Conclusions: There is a rising global interest in positive deviance, as evidenced by increasing publication volume, participation from lower-income countries, and strengthened international collaborations. Focusing on underexplored themes could help shape the direction of future positive deviance research in public health.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; Malnutrition; Obesity; Positive deviance; Public health; Quality improvement; Resource-limited settings.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Mayumi Mizutani reports financial support was provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Country contribution to positive deviance research in public health, 1976–2024.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
International collaboration on positive deviance research in public health, 1976–2024. Note: The intensity of the red color reflects the number of articles from 45 countries that participated in the positive deviance research, whereas the blue lines represent international collaboration.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Growth of top 10 authors' keywords on positive deviance research in public health, 1976–2024.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Thematic map with the authors' keywords on positive deviance research in public health, 1976–2024.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Akintunde T.Y., Musa T.H., Musa H.H., Chen S., Ibrahim E., Muhideen S., Kawuki J. Mapping the global research output on Ebola vaccine from research indexed in web of science and scopus: a comprehensive bibliometric analysis. Hum. Vaccin. Immunother. 2021;17:4246–4258. doi: 10.1080/21645515.2021.1948785. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Akintunde T.Y., Musa T.H., Musa H.H., Musa I.H., Chen S., Ibrahim E., Tassang A.E., Helmy M.S.E.D.M. Bibliometric analysis of global scientific literature on effects of COVID-19 pandemic on mental health. Asian J. Psychiatr. 2021;63 doi: 10.1016/j.ajp.2021.102753. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alzunitan M.A., Edmond M.B., Alsuhaibani M.A., Samuelson R.J., Schweizer M.L., Marra A.R. Positive deviance in infection prevention and control: a systematic literature review. Infect. Control Hosp. Epidemiol. 2022;43:358–365. doi: 10.1017/ice.2020.1256. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Andrews M., Pritchett L., Woolcock M. Escaping capability traps through problem driven iterative adaptation (PDIA) World Dev. 2013;51:234–244. doi: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2013.05.011. - DOI
    1. Aria M., Cuccurullo C. Bibliometrix: an R-tool for comprehensive science mapping analysis. J. Inf. Secur. 2017;11:959–975. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2017.08.007. - DOI

LinkOut - more resources