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Cited by 319scientometrics and bibliometrics researchMobile Health and mHealth ApplicationsPsychology Research and Bibliometrics

Bibliometric analysis of worldwide scientific literature in mobile - health: 2006–2016

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Sweileh, Waleed M., Al-Jabi, Samah W., AbuTaha, Adham S., Zyoud, Sa’ed H., Anayah, Fathi M. A., Sawalha, Ansam F.·2017·BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
DOI 10.1186/s12911-017-0476-7PMC PMC5450106
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The advancement of mobile technology had positively influenced healthcare services. An emerging subfield of mobile technology is mobile health (m-Health) in which mobile applications are used for health purposes. The aim of this study was to analyze and assess literature published in the field of m-Health. METHODS: SciVerse Scopus was used to retrieve literature in m-Health. The study period was set from 2006 to 2016. ArcGIS 10.1 was used to present geographical distribution of publications while VOSviewer was used for data visualization. Growth of publications, citation analysis, and research productivity were presented using standard bibliometric indicators. RESULTS: During the study period, a total of 5465 documents were published, giving an average of 496.8 documents per year. The h-index of retrieved documents was 81. Core keywords used in literature pertaining to m-Health included diabetes mellitus, adherence, and obesity among others. Relative growth rate and doubling time of retrieved literature were stable from 2009 to 2015 indicating exponential growth of literature in this field. A total of 4638 (84.9%) documents were multi-authored with a mean collaboration index of 4.1 authors per article. The United States of America ranked first in productivity with 1926 (35.2%) published documents. India ranked sixth with 183 (3.3%) documents while China ranked seventh with 155(2.8%) documents. VA Medical Center was the most prolific organization/institution while Journal of Medical Internet Research was the preferred journal for publications in the field of m-Health. Top cited articles in the field of m-Health included the use of mobile technology in improving adherence in HIV patients, weight loss, and improving glycemic control in diabetic patients. CONCLUSION: The size of literature in m-Health showed a noticeable increase in the past decade. Given the large volume of citations received in this field, it is expected that applications of m-Health will be seen into various health aspects and health services. Research in m-Health needs to be encouraged, particularly in the fight against AIDS, poor medication adherence, glycemic control in Africa and other low income world regions where technology can improve health services and decrease disease burden.

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Authors
Sweileh, W. M., Al-Jabi, S. W., AbuTaha, A. S., Zyoud, S. H., Anayah, F. M. A., & Sawalha, A. F.
Affiliations
  • An-Najah National University (PS)
  • Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie (PS)
Corresponding author
Sweileh, Waleed M.
ORCID
Venue
BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
2017-05-30
Volume
17
Issue
1
Pages
72-72
ISSN
1472-6947 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1186/s12911-017-0476-7
PMC
PMC5450106
OpenAlex
W2619769228
Cited by
319
References
19
Citations by year
2026: 20 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 47 · 2022: 59 · 2021: 52 · 2020: 28 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 20 · 2017: 1
FWCI
16.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
Funders
An-Najah National University
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › scientometrics and bibliometrics research
  • Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Mobile Health and mHealth Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
Keywords
mobile health, research productivity, co-authorship, citation analysis, medication adherence, diabetes mellitus, glycemic control, HIV, weight loss, low-income countries
MeSH terms
Bibliometrics, Telemedicine, History, 21st Century, Journal Impact Factor

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