Global Scientific Discourses on Maternal Nutrition: A Scientometric and Altmetric Exploration into Research Trends and Patterns

Background The present study is an endeavor to explore the global focus on maternal malnutrition research across the globe. The study underscores the development of maternal malnutrition research across the globe and may give impetus to researchers, policy makers and entrepreneurs for further research in this domain. Methods The study is descriptive in nature and used a mixed method approach that includes bibliometrics and altmetrics techniques to explore maternal malnutrition research. The study initiated with systematic data extraction from SCOPUS Database with proper data extraction criteria. The bibliometrics techniques include quantitative and qualitative techniques. The initial part of the study explores the quantitative dimension, including authorship studies, growth rate of publications, country-wise productivity and citation impact across the studied period. The second part of the study is dedicated to trend analysis that reveals the focused areas in malnutrition research. The third part of this study delves into the social impact of the concerned set of literature by analyzing the social media attention score through Altmetrics. Results It is found that there is a relatively low rate of growth of publications, with publications published in 2016 being more impactful and a preference for multi-authored publications over single-authored publications. Regional distribution highlights disparities in the research focus. Thematic analysis identified key clusters, such as acute malnutrition and maternal-child health interdependencies, with emerging areas in public health nutrition and epigenetics. Altmetric analysis has shown an active but declining trend in discourse on academic and social media platforms. Conclusions Results underscore the need for holistic interventions addressing both nutritional and psychosocial factors during pregnancy to break the intergenerational cycle of poor health and promote better outcomes for mothers and their children.