Key result
Arab countries contribute only ~1% of global CVD research publications, with Qatar leading relative output.
Why the study?
There is an increased burden of cardiovascular diseases in the Arab World, but the extent of CVD research activity in this region over the last 15 years was unclear.
The Arab world contributes only 1% of global cardiovascular disease publications, highlighting a significant lag in regional research activity despite a rising burden of non-communicable diseases.
May limit generalizability of global CVD evidence to Arab populations; leaves open the need for targeted regional research investment.
Background and Objectives: There is an increased number of non-communicable diseases i.e. chronic disease such as cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases in the Arab World. In this article, we will be aiming to measure the activity of cardiovascular disease (CVD) research via publications that have been released in the Arab World over the last 15 years.Methods: Search using Medline (via Ovid and PubMed) and EMBASE was used for this study. Publications related to cardiology/cardiovascular disease according to author origin/affiliation were collected from the 22 Arab countries between 2002 and 2016 (inclusive).Results: The Arab world only produced 1% of the total percentage of CVD publications over the interval of our study. There was however, an increase in the number of publications in recent years. Qatar and Lebanon had the highest ratio for CVD to Non-CVD publications released. Qatar had the highest number of publications per million persons. Tunisia had the highest number of publications per GDP (in US Billion Dollars).Conclusions: Overall, the Arab countries still lag behind other parts of the world in terms of CVD research activity. Five countries are responsible for the majority of publications.
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Khachfe et al. (2019) studied Cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease research activity vs. Global research activity / Non-CVD publications was evaluated on Percentage of global CVD publications. Cardiovascular disease research from 22 Arab countries accounted for only 1% of global CVD publications between 2002 and 2016, with Qatar, Lebanon, and Tunisia leading in relative metrics.
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