Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2022; 28(28): 3720-3731
Published online Jul 28, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i28.3720
Global research on Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhoea: A visualized study
Sa'ed H Zyoud
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Poison Control and Drug Information Center, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Clinical Research Centre, An-Najah National University Hospital, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Author contributions: Zyoud S developed the concept for the manuscript, reviewed the literature, formulated research questions, collected the data, conducted analyses and interpreted the data, and wrote the manuscript, the author read and approved the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The author has read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sa'ed H Zyoud, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Academic Street, Nablus 44839, Palestine. saedzyoud@yahoo.com
Received: February 15, 2022
Peer-review started: February 16, 2022
First decision: March 9, 2022
Revised: March 12, 2022
Accepted: June 22, 2022
Article in press: June 22, 2022
Published online: July 28, 2022
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile (C. difficile) is still the most common cause of healthcare-associated diarrhoea and is increasing in prevalence as a community-acquired infection. In addition, the emergence of antibiotic resistance in C. difficile can increase the likelihood of the disease developing and/or spreading.

AIM

To provide an up-to-date picture of the trends in publications related to C. difficile infection, together with specific insights into hot-button issues in this field.

METHODS

Publications on C. difficile infections in the field of microbiology between 2001 and 2020 were identified from the Scopus database and Reference Citation Analysis. Bibliometric indicators were determined, including the number and type of publications, countries, affiliations, funding agencies, journals and citation patterns. VOSviewer was used to determine research areas and hot-button issues by identifying recurring terms with a high relative occurrence in the title and abstract.

RESULTS

A total of 8127 documents on ‘C. difficile-associated diarrhoea’ published between 2001 and 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database. In the last decade, there has been a significant almost fourfold increase in the number of published papers on this topic. The United States was among the countries (44.11%) with the most publications, and the most involved institution was the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom (2.50%). Three clusters of research were identified and included ‘illness spectrum and severity, as well as the signs, symptoms and clinical pathogenesis of C. difficile’; ‘laboratory diagnosis and characterization of C. difficile’ and ‘risk factors for C. difficile infection’.

CONCLUSION

This study contains the most up-to-date and comprehensive data ever compiled in this field. More international research and cross-institutional collaborations are needed to address more global C. difficile concerns and to benefit from greater sharing of expertise, which will result in higher quality or more effective studies in the future. Promising research avenues in the near future may draw the attention of relevant scientists and funding organizations and open up novel C. difficile infection–based diagnosis and treatment approaches.

Keywords: Clostridioides, Clostridium difficile, Bibliometric, Scopus, VOSviewer, Diarrhoea

Core Tip: The significance of this study lies in the fact that, to our best knowledge, there are no previous bibliometric studies on Clostridioides (Clostridium) difficile (C. difficile) infection research. This study presents the evolution of C. difficile infection-related publications over time. This bibliometric study will provide clinicians and researchers in gastroenterology and microbiology with a quantitative and timely summary of C. difficile infection-related publications. Promising research avenues in the near future may draw the attention of relevant scientists and funding organizations and open up novel C. difficile infection–based diagnosis and treatment approaches.