Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Sep 24, 2020
Date Accepted: Dec 2, 2020
Mapping research trends of universal health coverage from 1990 to 2019: a bibliometric analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Universal health coverage (UHC) is one of the ambitious health-related “Sustainable Development Goals” set by the “United Nations” General Assembly in 2015 and one of the top priorities of the “2030 Agenda”. UHC represents the hope for a better health for the world’s poorest. At least half of the world's population does not have access to full coverage for a package of essential health services. The path to UHC involves important policy choices and inevitable trade-offs. Sharing the various experiences in achieving UHC in terms of challenges, pitfalls and future prospects can help policy- and decision-makers reduce the likelihood of committing errors, wasting resources that could be better allocated and benefiting from global good practices. Scholarly articles and technical reports are, as such, of paramount importance in shedding light on the determinants that make it possible to achieve UHC.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive analysis of UHC-related scientific literature between 1990 and 2019.
Methods:
We carried out a bibliometrics analysis of articles related to UHC published from 1990 to September 2019 and indexed in Scopus, by means of VOSviewer Version1.6.13. Relevant information was extracted: the number of documents published, the 20 top authors, the 20 top journals, the 20 top funding sources, the 20 top institutes/research centers with the highest number of documents, the 20 top countries, and the 20 high cited documents and last impact factor of journals in 2018.
Results:
7,224 articles were included in the present analysis. The publication trend was increasing, showing a high interest of the scientific community. Most researchers were from the USA, the UK, and Canada with Thailand being a notable exception.
Conclusions:
The findings of our study showed an increasing scholarly interest towards UHC and related issues. However, most research concentrated in developed regions and countries. Therefore, research in developing countries should be promoted and supported, in that it could enable to better understand the determinants of the barriers and obstacles to the achievement of UCH and improve global health. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
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