Current status and future prospects of epidemiology and public health training and research in the WHO African region

Abstract

Background To date little has been published about epidemiology and public health capacity (training, research, funding, human resources) in WHO/AFRO to help guide future planning by various stakeholders.Methods A bibliometric analysis was performed to identify published epidemiological research. Information about epidemiology and public health training, current research and challenges was collected from key informants using a standardized questionnaire.Results From 1991 to 2010, epidemiology and public health research output in the WHO/AFRO region increased from 172 to 1086 peer-reviewed articles per annum [annual percentage change (APC) = 10.1%, P for trend < 0.001]. The most common topics were HIV/AIDS (11.3%), malaria (8.6%) and tuberculosis (7.1%). Similarly, numbers of first authors (APC = 7.3%, P for trend < 0.001), corresponding authors (APC = 8.4%, P for trend < 0.001) and last authors (APC = 8.5%, P for trend < 0.001) from Africa increased during the same period. However, an overwhelming majority of respondents (>90%) reported that this increase is only rarely linked to regional post-graduate training programmes in epidemiology. South Africa leads in publications (1978/8835, 22.4%), followed by Kenya (851/8835, 9.6%), Nigeria (758/8835, 8.6%), Tanzania (549/8835, 6.2%) and Uganda (428/8835, 4.8%) (P < 0.001, each vs South Africa). Independent predictors of relevant research productivity were ‘in-country numbers of epidemiology or public health programmes’ [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 3.41; 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.90–6.11; P = 0.03] and ‘number of HIV/AIDS patients’ (IRR = 1.30; 95% CI 1.02–1.66; P < 0.001).Conclusions Since 1991, there has been increasing epidemiological research productivity in WHO/AFRO that is associated with the number of epidemiology programmes and burden of HIV/AIDS cases. More capacity building and training initiatives in epidemiology are required to promote research and address the public health challenges facing the continent.

A bibliometric analysis of drinking water research in Africa

“…It was noted Besides the overarching regional imbalance in water research, availability of research capital including research technologies and related structures controlled inter-state disparities in drinking water research involvement by African researchers. Consequently, South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria (Chuang et al, 2011;Nachega et al, 2012;Pouris and Ho, 2014), which are among the countries with some of the most established research structures in Africa, dominate research output across all study fields.…”

“…The criteria for bibliometric assessment is, thus, founded on examination of trends in research parameters, which adduce data used to assemble information that would characterize the evolutionary structure of research in a particular field of study (Feller and Bernoux, 2008). The analyses are geared towards exposing knowledge gaps and revealing emphases that would drive successive research in the study field (Nachega et al, 2012).…”

Biomedical research and capacity building: Bilateral collaboration between research institutes in South Africa and Cameroon

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