Bibliometric analysis of published articles on perinatal anxiety from 1920-2020

Introduction Trends and gaps in perinatal anxiety research remain unknown. The objective of this bibliometric review was to analyze the characteristics and trends in published research on perinatal anxiety to inform future research. Methods All published literature in Web of Science on perinatal anxiety from January 1, 1920 to December 31, 2020 were screened by two reviewers. VOSViewer was utilized to visualize linkages between publications. Bibliometric data were extracted from abstracts. Results The search strategy identified 4,561 publications. After screening, 2,203 publications related to perinatal anxiety were used for the visualization analysis. For the bibliometric data, 1,534 publications had perinatal anxiety as a primary focus. There were 7,910 different authors, over half named only once (55.5%), from 63 countries. 495 journals were identified, with over half (56.0%) publishing only one article. Most articles were published between 2011-2020 (75.9%). In terms of perinatal timing, over half (54.2%) published on antenatal anxiety. Only 6.0% of studies reported on perinatal anxiety in fathers and 56.5% reported on postpartum depression. Limitations Web of Science was solely used, and manual screening of each publication was required. Conclusion This bibliometric analysis found: (1) perinatal is a growing field of research, with publications increasing over time; (2) there is variation in authors and journals; (3) over half of the publications focus on antenatal anxiety; (4) paternal anxiety is understudied; and (5) only 6% of publications came from low and lower-middle income countries. Gaps related to maternal postnatal, and all paternal perinatal anxiety exist. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement Justine Dol is funded by a Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) Postdoctoral Fellowship (FRN#181869). No project funding was received. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.