Research productivity among Filipino adult and child neurologists associated with socioeconomic factors, healthcare delivery, and disease burden: a bibliometric analysis (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The Filipino neurologist is encouraged not only to treat, but to research and to teach. Philippine research productivity in neurology is known from previous bibliometric analyses in Southeast Asia, however nationwide research output has not been fully characterized. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the research output of adult and child neurologists in the Philippines and to correlate this to socioeconomic and healthcare indices among different regions in the Philippines. METHODS Electronic databases were used to retrieve studies published by Filipino neurologists using the 2022 Philippine Neurological Association official website as reference. We included all studies published until December 2021. Region-specific socioeconomic indices were sourced from official government data. Correlational analysis was done on bibliometric indices and collected data. RESULTS The study included 746 articles from 274 of 526 Filipino neurologists which were published in 245 publications over 45 years with a total of 12,409 citations. Total publications (n = 662, 88.7%) and citations (n = 10,377, 83.6%) were highest in the National Capital Region. Research productivity was positively correlated with population, gross domestic product, health expenditure, number of healthcare establishments, neurologists, and research personnel. CONCLUSIONS The research landscape in the Philippines is dominated by studies authored by neurologists belonging to institutions in the National Capital Region, which has the most number of neurologists, training institutions, and highest gross domestic product. There is a need to address the disparity seen in more distant regions in order to bridge gaps in healthcare, health human resources, and health information through research.