Pediatric medical research: where is the gap?

Abstract EN

Objective : to evaluate the trends in pediatric researches performed at the main hospital in Bahrain and to identify existing research gaps.

setting: pediatric department, salmaniya medical complex, Bahrain.

design: a retrospective study.

method: all scientific contributions produced by the pediatric department were identified between1 January 1977 and 31 may 2018.

annual and cumulative trends of scientific production were calculated.

articles were stratified based on publication type, medical subspecialties and types of publishing journals.

pediatrician’s gender, job description and current job were documented.

result: out of 416 scientific contributions, 309 scientific publications were analyzed (293 journal articles, 5 books, 9 book chapters, 2 booklets).

there was a significant increase in the number of publications over the last four decades (p-value<0.0001).

hematology and gastroenterology were the most researched specialties, 38 (12.3%) publications each.

publications on infectious diseasesc were eight (2.6%) and seven (2.3%) on oncology.

out of 257 (83.2%) publications, 125 (40.5%) articles were published in international journals.

forty-seven (51.1%) out of 92 pediatricians had scientific publications.

of the 47 pediatricians, 36 (76.6%) were consultants and 11 (23.4%) were residents (p-value <0.0001).

gender (p-value=0.838) and position (p-value=0.633) had no effects on publication.

conclusion: in the last four decades, there has been a remarkable increase in the number of pediatric publications at the main hospital in Bahrain, with special emphasis on hematological and gastrointestinal problems.

yet, there is a continuous need to study important health problems, such as cancer and infections.