Analysis of congenital heart disease research: Mapping impact, production and global collaboration

Abstract

Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is a severe childhood health problem worldwide. This study analyzes the scientific production on CHD published in Scopus during the last decade. Methods: This study assessed the research on CHD conducted during the 2011–2020 period. Indexed publications were identified using a list of keywords consisting of MeSH (Medical Subject Heading) and Emtree (EMBASE) terms for the category “Congenital Heart Defects.” The studies obtained were analyzed using the SciVal platform, and the production, impact, and collaboration indicators were considered. Additionally, an analysis of co-occurrence between countries and keywords was carried out with the VOSviewer software. Results: The study found 8934 articles on CHD. A growing trend was observed during the last decade. The distribution of the scientific production at the international level shows that most publications are from the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, whereas Latin American countries have the lowest production. The articles analyzed contain a total of 89,835 citations. Most studies are published in high-impact journals (Q1), with 3273 studies corresponding to 39.3% of the total production analyzed. In the keyword analysis, we found five areas investigated. Conclusions: Scientific production has shown sustained growth in the past years. Increased scientific production in specific research areas may have helped decrease morbimortality due to CHD.