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Background: Due to constantly rising air pollution levels as well as an increasing awareness of the hazardousness of air pollutants, new laws and rules have recently been passed. Although there has been a large amount of research on this topic, bibliometric data is still to be collected. Thus this study provides a scientometric approach to the material published on this subject so far.
Methods: For this purpose, data retrieved from the "Web of Science" provided by the Thomson Scientific Institute was analyzed and visualized both with density-equalizing methods and classic data-processing methods such as tables and charts.
Results: For the time span between 1955 and 2006, 26,253 items were listed and related to the topic of air pollution, published by 124 countries in 24 different languages. General citation activity has been constantly increasing since the beginning of the examined period. However, beginning with the year 1991, citation levels have been rising exponentially each year, reaching 39,220 citations in the year 2006. The United States, the UK and Germany were the three most productive countries in the area, with English and German ranked first and second in publishing languages, followed by French. An article published by Dockery, Pope, Xu et al. was both the most cited in total numbers and in average citation rate. J. Schwartz was able to claim the highest total number of citations on his publications, while D.W. Dockery has the highest citation rate per publication. As to the subject areas the items are assigned with, the most item were published in Environmental Sciences, followed by Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences and Public, Environmental & Occupational Health. Nine out of the ten publishing journals with more than 300 entries dealt with environmental interests and one dealt with epidemiology.
Conclusions: Using the method of density-equalizing mapping and further common data processing procedures, it can be concluded that scientific work concerning air pollution and related topics enjoys unbrokenly growing scientific interest. This can be observed both in publication numbers and in citation activity.
Background: Diseases associated with smoking are a foremost cause of premature death in the world, both in developed and developing countries. Eliminating smoking can do more to improve health and prolong life than any other measure in the field of preventive medicine. Today's medical students will play a prominent role in future efforts to prevent and control tobacco use.
Methods: A cross-sectional, self-administered, anonymous survey of fifth-year medical students in Berlin, Germany was conducted in November 2007. The study explored the prevalence of smoking among medical students. We assessed their current knowledge regarding tobacco dependence and the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods. Students' perceived competence to counsel smokers and promote smoking cessation treatments was also explored. Analyses were based on responses from 258 students (86.6% response rate).
Results: One quarter of the medical students surveyed were current smokers. The smoking rate was 22.1% among women, 32.4% among men. Students underestimated smoking-related mortality and the negative effect of smoking on longevity. A considerable number of subjects erroneously assumed that nicotine causes coronary artery disease. Students' overall knowledge of the effectiveness of smoking cessation methods was inadequate. Only one third of the students indicated that they felt qualified to counsel patients about tobacco dependence.
Conclusions: This study reveals serious deficiencies in knowledge and counseling skills among medical students in our sample. The curriculum of every medical school should include a tobacco module. Thus, by providing comprehensive training in nicotine dependence interventions to medical students, smokers will have access to the professional expertise they need to quit smoking.
Background: Occupational demands of educators are not very well researched. Nevertheless their work is subject to several requirements. Whether these demands have an effect on the work ability and the health status of employees has also not been examined. Furthermore it is unclear if the ownership type of day care centres have an influence on job satisfaction and work ability of the pedagogical staff and what kind of resources do exist. Previous studies were mainly based on questionnaire data. Objective data does not exist. Therefore the aim of this investigation is to collect precise data relating to work of educators.
Methods: Effects of different types of ownership of day care centres on job satisfaction and work ability of educators will be assessed with the help of objective real time studies in combination with multi-level psycho diagnostic measurements.
Discussion: The present study is the first of its kind. Up to now there are no computer-based real time studies on workflow of pedagogical staff with regard to assess their work-related stress. Following an exhaustive documentation of educators work processes the day-to-day task can be estimated and approaches for prevention can be developed. This can substantially contribute to an overall improvement of child care in Germany.
Background: There are several ways to conduct a job task analysis in medical work environments including pencil-paper observations, interviews and questionnaires. However these methods implicate bias problems such as high inter-individual deviations and risks of misjudgement. Computer-based observation helps to reduce these problems. The aim of this paper is to give an overview of the development process of a computer-based job task analysis instrument for real-time observations to quantify the job tasks performed by physicians working in different medical settings. In addition reliability and validity data of this instrument will be demonstrated.
Methods: This instrument was developed in consequential steps. First, lists comprising tasks performed by physicians in different care settings were classified. Afterwards content validity of task lists was proved. After establishing the final task categories, computer software was programmed and implemented in a mobile personal computer. At least inter-observer reliability was evaluated. Two trained observers recorded simultaneously tasks of the same physician.
Results: Content validity of the task lists was confirmed by observations and experienced specialists of each medical area. Development process of the job task analysis instrument was completed successfully. Simultaneous records showed adequate interrater reliability.
Conclusion: Initial results of this analysis supported the validity and reliability of this developed method for assessing physicians' working routines as well as organizational context factors. Based on results using this method, possible improvements for health professionals' work organisation can be identified.
Background: During the last two decades the German hospital sector has been engaged in a constant process of transformation. One obvious sign of this is the growing amount of hospital privatization. To date, most research studies have focused on the effects of privatization regarding financial outcomes and quality of care, leaving important organizational issues unexplored. Yet little attention has been devoted to the effects of privatization on physicians' working routines. The aim of this observational real-time study is to deliver exact data about physicians' work at hospitals of different ownership. By analysing working hours, further impacts of hospital privatization can be assessed and areas of improvement identified.
Methods: Observations were made by shadowing 100 physicians working in private, for-profit or non-profit as well as public hospital departments individually during whole weekday shifts in urban German settings. A total of 300 days of observations were conducted. All working activities were recorded, accurate to the second, by using a mobile personal computer.
Results: Results have shown significant differences in physicians' working activities, depending on hospital ownership, concerning working hours and time spent on direct and indirect patient care.
Conclusion: This is the first real-time analysis on differences in work activities depending on hospital ownership. The study provides an objective insight into physicians' daily work routines at hospitals of different ownership, with additional information on effects of hospital privatization.
Abstract: The current Ebola outbreak poses a threat to individual and global public health. Although the disease has been of interest to the scientific community since 1976, an effective vaccination approach is still lacking. This fact questions past global public health strategies, which have not foreseen the possible impact of this infectious disease. To quantify the global research activity in this field, a scientometric investigation was conducted. We analyzed the research output of countries, individual institutions and their collaborative networks. The resulting research architecture indicated that American and European countries played a leading role regarding output activity, citations and multi- and bilateral cooperations. When related to population numbers, African countries, which usually do not dominate the global research in other medical fields, were among the most prolific nations. We conclude that the field of Ebola research is constantly progressing, and the research landscape is influenced by economical and infrastructural factors as well as historical relations between countries and outbreak events.
Author Summary: For the first time in the history of the disease, the Ebola virus left its local setting and affected people not only in isolated rural areas, but reached larger towns and cities leading to worldwide repercussions. This development prompted a joint global response to this health threat. This encompassed not only immediate relief efforts, but also an up search in global research work. In this study, the scientific output in Ebola research available in one of the mayor medical search platforms was characterized. We studied among others the origin of research, the collaboration between countries and the research topics. Partly, the obtained data was weighted against economic parameters. We attained a detailed map of the research activities from the discovery of Ebola in 1976 up to today. Our research provides the first overview of the worldwide Ebola research output. It might help stakeholders in Ebola research to better plan investigations with a global perspective.
Objective: About 2% of all pregnancies are complicated by the implantation of the zygote outside the uterine cavity and termed ectopic pregnancy. Whereas a multitude of guidelines exists and related research is constantly growing, no thorough assessment of the global research architecture has been performed yet. Hence, we aim to assess the associated scientific activities in relation to geographical and chronological developments, existing research networks and socioeconomic parameters.
Design: Retrospective, descriptive study.
Setting: On the basis of the NewQIS platform, scientometric methods were combined with novel visualising techniques such as density-equalising mapping to assess the scientific output on ectopic pregnancy. Using the Web of Science, we identified all related entries from 1900 to 2012.
Results: 8040 publications were analysed. The USA and the UK were dominating the field in regard to overall research activity (2612 and 723 publications), overall citation numbers and country-specific H-Indices (US: 80, UK: 42). Comparison to economic power of the most productive countries demonstrated that Israel invested more resources in ectopic pregnancy-related research than other nations (853.41 ectopic pregnancy-specific publications per 1000 billlion US$ gross domestic product (GDP)), followed by the UK (269.97). Relation to the GDP per capita index revealed 49.3 ectopic pregnancy-specific publications per US$1000 GDP per capita for the USA in contrast to 17.31 for the UK. Semiqualitative indices such as country-specific citation rates ranked Switzerland first (24.7 citations per ectopic pregnancy-specific publication), followed by the Scandinavian countries Finland and Sweden. Low-income countries did not exhibit significant research activities.
Conclusions: This is the first in-depth analysis of global ectopic pregnancy research since 1900. It offers unique insights into the global scientific landscape. Besides the USA and the UK, Scandinavian countries and Switzerland can also be regarded as leading nations with regard to their relative socioeconomic input.
Background: Working conditions of nursery school teachers have not been scrutinized thoroughly in scientific research. Only a few studies have so far examined work-load and strain in this profession. Preferably, subjective perceptions should be corroborated by data that can be quantified more objectively and accurately. The aim of the present observational field study was to evaluate pedagogical staffs' workflow.
Methods: In 2009 eleven educators in a day care centre were observed throughout three complete workdays. A total of 250 working hours were recorded.
Results: An educators' workday lasted on average 07:46:59 h (SD = 01:01:10 h).Within this time span, an average of 02:20:46 h (30.14%, SD = 00:28:07 h) were spent on caring, 01:44:18 h on playing (22.33%, SD = 00:54:12 h), 00:49:37 h on educational work (10.62%, SD = 00:40:09), and only 00:05:38 h on individual child contact (1.21%, SD = 00:04:58 h).
Conclusion: For the first time, educators' workflow in day care centres was studied in real time. Some of the educators' self-reported problems were corroborated. The results of this study form a basis upon which further investigations can be built and measures can be developed for an overall improvement of child care.
Endometriosis and its global research architecture : an in-depth density-equalizing mapping analysis
(2016)
Background: Endometriosis is one of the most common gynecological diseases. It is still a chameleon in many aspects and urges intense research activities in the fields of diagnosis, therapy and prevention. Despite the need to foster research in this area, no in-depth analysis of the global architecture of endometriosis research exists yet.
Methods: We here used the NewQIS platform to conduct a density equalizing mapping study, using the Web of Science as database with endometriosis related entries between 1900 and 2009. Density equalizing maps of global endometriosis research encompassing country-specific publication activities, and semi-qualitative indices such as country specific citations, citation rates, h-Indices were created.
Results: In total, 11,056 entries related to endometriosis were found. The USA was leading the field with 3705 publications followed by the United Kingdom (952) and Japan (846). Concerning overall citations and country-specific h-Indices, the USA again was the leading nation with 74,592 citations and a modified h-Index of 103, followed by the UK with 15,175 citations (h-Index 57). Regarding the citation rate, Sweden and Belgium were at top positions with rates of 22.46 and 22.26, respectively. Concerning collaborative studies, there was a steep increase in numbers present; analysis of the chronological evolution indicated a strong increase in international collaborations in the past 10 years.
Conclusions: This study is the first analysis that illustrates the global endometriosis research architecture. It shows that endometriosis research is constantly gaining importance but also underlines the need for further efforts and investments to foster research and ultimately improve endometriosis management on a global scale.
Introduction: Obesity is classified as a global epidemic and judged to be the greatest public health threat in Western countries. The tremendously increasing prevalence rates in children lead to morbidity and mortality in adults. In many countries, prevalence has doubled since the 1980s. Other countries show a continuous increase or stagnate at a very high level. Given these regional differences, this study aims to draw a global world map of childhood obesity research, including regional epidemiological characteristics, to comprehensively assess research influences and needs. Methods: In addition to established bibliometric parameters, this study uses epidemiological data to interpret metadata on childhood obesity research from the Web of Science in combination with state-of-the-art visualization methods, such as density equalizing map projections. Results: It was not until the 1990s that belated recognition of the dangerous effects of childhood obesity led to an increase in the number of publications worldwide. In addition, our findings show that countries’ study output does not correlate with epidemiologic rates of childhood obesity. In contrast, the primary driver of the research efforts on childhood obesity appears to be largely driven government funding structures. Discussion/Conclusion: The geographical differences in the epidemiological background of childhood obesity complicate the implementation of transnational research projects and cross-border prevention programs. Effective realization requires a sound scientific basis, which is facilitated by globally valid approaches. Hence, there is a need for information exchange between researchers, policy makers, and private initiatives worldwide.