Research Productivity among Filipino Neurologists Associated with Socioeconomic, Healthcare, and Disease Burden Factors: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Philippine research productivity in neurology has not been fully characterized. We investigated the research output of adult and child neurologists in the Philippines and correlated this to the Philippine socioeconomic and healthcare indices among different regions. We used electronic databases to retrieve studies published by Filipino neurologists using the 2022 Philippine Neurological Association website as reference. We included all studies published until December 2021. Official government region-specific socioeconomic indices were used. Correlational analysis was completed on bibliometric indices and collected data. We retrieved 746 articles from 274 of 526 Filipino neurologists which were published in 245 publications over 45 years with 12,409 citations. The National Capital Region (NCR) had the most publications (n = 662, 88.7%) and citations (n = 10,377, 83.6%). Research productivity was positively correlated with population, gross domestic product (GDP), health expenditure, number of healthcare establishments, neurologists, and research personnel. The Philippine research landscape is dominated by articles of neurologists belonging to institutions in the NCR, which has the greatest number of neurologists, training institutions, and highest GDP. There is a need to address the disparity seen in other regions to bridge gaps in healthcare, health human resources, and health information through research.

Burden of Neurological Diseases in the Philippines as Revealed by Web Searches: An Infodemiological Study

“…It would also seem that there was disagreement in the search interest of laypersons and the scientific community. Among the neurologists in the country, the most commonly researched and published articles were about stroke and movement disorders [ 22 ]. There were significantly fewer published studies on headaches and neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders [ 22 ], which were among the most searched neurological diseases on Google in this study.…”

“…Among the neurologists in the country, the most commonly researched and published articles were about stroke and movement disorders [ 22 ]. There were significantly fewer published studies on headaches and neurodevelopmental and neuropsychiatric disorders [ 22 ], which were among the most searched neurological diseases on Google in this study. On the other hand, the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, as demonstrated by bid prices, may closely mirror that of the scientific community.…”

“…On the other hand, the interests of the pharmaceutical industry, as demonstrated by bid prices, may closely mirror that of the scientific community. Average bid prices were highest for medications used for secondary stroke prevention, which was reflective of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases being the most commonly researched disease in the Philippines [ 22 ]. This, however, may still be attributed to the general prevalence of lifestyle diseases and their underlying risk factors.…”

Impact of the organ-system integrated curriculum on the research productivity of a Philippine government medical school: An ARIMA-based bibliometric analysis

“…Another possible factor is the general research and development landscape of the country. Several recent bibliometric analyses highlight that the Philippines, compared to its neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, is lagging in terms of scientific publications and the most commonly cited indicator is the low % gross domestic product (GDP) allocated for research and development (Pajo et al 2020;Apor et al 2021;Turalde et al 2021;Jalipa et al 2021;Apor and Jamora 2022;Sanchez et al 2023).…”

Where does Hispanic Latin America stand in biomedical and life sciences literature production compared with other countries?

“…Several bibliometric analyses of specific fields or regions have studied the relationship between scientific output and political, economic, and health system variables [ [9] , [10] , [11] , [12] ]. Some have found a strong association between the number of publications and a high gross domestic product (GDP) due to increased human and economic resources destined for research [ 13 ].…”