Impact of COVID-19 on Stroke: A Scientometric Assessment of Global Publications during 2020-21

Abstract

Background and Aim: The COVID-19, as a global epidemic, has led to public health problems including its impact on stroke. There has been a significant increase in the research on the impact of COVID-19 on stroke. Little attention, however, has been focused on the overall trend in this field based on bibliometric analysis. This study aimed to assess the characteristics and trends of research on “Impact of COVID-19 on Stroke”. Methods: Using Scopus database, a search query was formulated involving keywords related to “COVID-19” and “Stroke” for identifying relevant literature on this topic, resulting in 956 publications during 2020- 21. Results: The 956 global publications on this topic registered an average 11.75 citations impact per paper. About one-fifth (19.56%) share of global publications was supported by extramural funding support. USA (n=341; 35.67%) contributed the largest number of papers, followed by the Italy (n=106; 11.09%) and U.K. (n=77; 8.05%). China (24.42 and 2.52) had registered the highest citation impact per paper and relative citation index, followed by France (22.02 and 1.87) and the USA (18.96 and 1.61). Harvard Medical School, USA (n=27) ranked first in publication productivity, followed by the University of Toronto, Canada (n=23) and The University of Thessaly, Greece (n=23). NTU Langone Health, USA (54.27 and 4.62) University of Pennsylvania, USA (35.55 and 3.03) and Hospital Universitario La Paz, Spain (28.0 and 2.38) ranked top in citation impact. S. Yagi (USA) (n=16) ranked first in publication productivity, followed by G. Tsivgoulis (Greece) (n=15) and H.S. Markus (U.K.) (n=11) and J.T. Fifi (USA)(171.88 and 14.63), J. Mocco (USA)(128.45 and 10.93) and P. Jabbour (USA)(45.86 and 3.90) ranked on top in citation impact. Stroke (n=95) ranked first in productivity, followed by Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Disease (n=81) and Frontiers in Neurology (n=34). Conclusion: This study suggests that a large amount of literature has accumulated on “Impact of Covid-19 on Stroke”, both from developed and developing countries.