Stability and change in public health studies in Colombia and Mexico: an exploratory approach based on co-word analysis
Rev Panam Salud Publica
; 42, abr. 2018
Article
in English
| PAHO-IRIS
| ID: phr-34938
Responsible library:
US1.1
ABSTRACT
[ABSTRACT]. Objective. To determine the level of stability or change in topic areas published by public health journals in Latin America and the Caribbean, using keywords and co-word analysis, in order to support evidence-based research planning. Methods. Keywords were extracted from papers indexed in Scopus® that were published by the Revista de Salud Pública (RSP; Colombia), the Salud Pública de México (SPM; Mexico), and the Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Pública (RPMESP; Peru) for three periods 2005 – 2007, 2008 – 2010, and 2011 – 2013. Co-word analysis was used to examine keywords extracted. Textual information was analyzed using centrality measures (inbetweenness and closeness). The hypothesis of stability/change of thematic coverage was tested using the Spearman’s rho correlation coefficient. VOSviewer was used to visualize the co-word maps. Results. A moderate level of change in thematic coverage was observed in 2005 – 2010, as evidenced by the correlation coefficients for two of the 3-year periods, 2005 – 2007 and 2008 – 2010 0.545 for RSP and 0.593 for SPM. However, in 2008 – 2013, more keywords remained constant from one period to the next, given the size of the correlation coefficients for the last 3-year periods 2008 – 2010 and 2011 – 2013 0.727 for RSP and 0.605 for SPM. Conclusion. The research hypothesis was partially accepted given that just two consecutive 3-year periods showed a statistically-significant degree of stability in thematic coverage in public health studies. In that sense, this study provides compelling evidence of the effectiveness of using a combined approach for examining the dynamics of thematic coverage centrality measures for identifying the main keywords and visual inspection for detecting the structure of textual information.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
PAHO-IRIS
Main subject:
Peru
/
Public Health
/
Colombia
/
Knowledge Discovery
/
Mexico
/
Terminology as Topic
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Aspects:
Social determinants of health
Country/Region as subject:
South America
/
Colombia
/
Mexico
/
Peru
Language:
English
Year:
2018
Document type:
Article