Mapping Twenty Years of Antimicrobial Resistance Research Trends

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat to health and healthcare. In response to the growing AMR burden, research funding also increased. However, a comprehensive overview of the research output, including conceptual, temporal, and geographical trends, is missing. Therefore, this study uses topic modelling, a machine learning approach, to reveal the scientific evolution of AMR research and its trends, and provides an interactive user interface for further analyses. Methods: Structural topic modelling (STM) was applied on a text corpus resulting from a PubMed query comprising AMR articles (1999-2018). A topic network was established and topic trends were analysed by frequency, proportion, and importance over time and space. Findings: In total, 88 topics were identified in 158616 articles from 166 countries. AMR publications increased by 450% between 1999 and 2018, emphasizing the vibrancy of the field. Prominent topics in 2018 were Strategies for emerging resistances and diseases, Nanoparticles, and Stewardship. Emerging topics included Water and environment, and Sequencing. Geographical trends showed prominence of Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in the WHO African Region, corresponding with the MDR-TB burden. China and India were growing contributors in recent years, following the United States of America as overall lead contributor. Interpretation: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the AMR research output thereby revealing the AMR research response to the increased AMR burden. Both the results and the publicly available interactive database serve as a base to inform and optimise future research.

The Visual Dictionary of Antimicrobial Stewardship, Infection Control, and Institutional Surveillance Data

“…This study succeeds a mapping study that clustered the AMR field into 88 topics (Luz et al, 2021). The map was generated by assessing the entire body of AMR literature available on PubMed between 1999 and 2018 (152,780 articles).…”

The Visual Dictionary of Antimicrobial Stewardship, Infection Control, and Institutional Surveillance

“…This study was based on a previous mapping study that clustered the field of AMR into 88 topics [27]. The map was generated by assessing the entire body of AMR literature available on PubMed between 1999 and 2018 consisting of 152780 articles.…”

Predicting the occurrence and spread of harmful microorganisms with statistical models

“…We compare the TCs derived using the semi-automated framework introduced in this study with the thematic groups that manually group the topics in [15]. The comparison shows that most TCs are combinations of two to three thematic groups.…”

“…However, with the exponential increase in AMR research output, it is increasingly challenging to objectively organise and synthesise the current state of AMR research to stay informed about previous and most recent scientific contributions [14]. Scalable statistical models for text analysis can be used to determine underlying topics in large quantities of literature automatically and objectively [15]. In addition to understanding the AMR research field, statistical models are essential to address these knowledge gaps.…”

“…To overcome this possible bias, data-driven computational techniques for text analysis can be used to determine underlying topics in large quantities of literature automatically [15]. Recent advances in statistical models for text analysis made it possible to estimate the latent topics which generated the words of an observed body of text.…”