Global Burden of Skin Disease Representation in the Literature: Bibliometric Analysis

Introduction

The 2013 Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Morbidity and Mortality report identified skin diseases as the fourth leading cause of global disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) [1]. One DALY is the sum of years of life lost to a disease plus years lived with disability, with 1 DALY equating to 1 year of healthy life lost [1]. Research pertaining to skin disorders with higher reported DALYs has potential to reduce the global burden of skin disease through improvements in management guidelines, public health initiatives, policy changes, and increased awareness within the scientific and greater community [2]. This study evaluates the representation of dermatologic conditions comprising the highest DALYs in dermatology literature to identify areas that could benefit from increased research focus.

Methods

A comprehensive search was performed using PubMed to identify peer-reviewed papers. A previous GBD study has identified and ranked individual skin disorders according to their respective DALYs [1]. This GBD study was used to select our specific search terms such as dermatitis, acne vulgaris, psoriasis, urticaria, viral skin diseases, fungal skin diseases, scabies, melanoma, pyoderma, and cellulitis. The h-index is a noted metric used to measure individual author and journal research influence and impact [3]. The top 5 dermatology journals ranked by the 2019 h-index were identified using the Scimago Journal and Country Rank [4]. PubMed searching was performed by pairing individual skin disease terms with each journal title (eg, “dermatitis” AND “Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology”). From 2015 to 2020, all indexed publications pertaining to each disease were recorded and compared to the total number of publications for each journal surveyed. All article types were included to obtain a complete picture of relevant skin disease research. Duplicate papers were excluded.

Results

Over the span of 2015-2020, 19,727 publications were recorded from the previously mentioned journals. Melanoma (eighth in DALYs) had the highest representation in the literature at 10.11% (1995/19,727) of the total publications, followed by psoriasis (1936/19,727, 9.81%) and dermatitis (1927/19,727, 9.77%) (Table 1). Melanoma, psoriasis, and dermatitis comprised a total of 29.69% (5858/19,727) of all the publications from 2015 to 2020. The remaining 7 skin diseases comprised only 6.79% (1341/19,727) of the total publications. Acne vulgaris, the second highest contributor to skin GBD, followed dermatitis with a much lower representation in the literature (477/19,727, 2.42%). Scabies accumulated the lowest percentage of the total publications (54/19,727, 0.27%). The proportions of publications by year for each disease are shown in Figure 1.

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Discussion

The disproportionate representation of melanoma in the literature compared to overall GBD is likely explained by the increased mortality risk of melanoma relative to other skin diseases [5,6]. Additionally, a large portion of the examined publications originated from North American– and European-based journals, which are regions with high melanoma incidence reported globally [5]. Notably, these regions have minimal incidence of scabies [1], which had the lowest representation in the literature. However, literature representation is likely multifactorial, with epidemiologic factors and research funding contributing to literature representation [7].

Although this study utilizes 2013 GBD data to guide our literature search, it does not implicate the literature gaps identified in this study. Our study was limited by the use of 1 specific search term pertaining to the individual skin diseases. We recognize that performing our search across 5 journals with a single term per skin disease could have led to possible omissions. Although a variety of terms could be searched for some skin diseases within our study, such as fungal skin diseases, we elected to use a single term for consistency across all the skin diseases studied and recognize that certain publications discussing multiple skin diseases may have been listed under more than one search term. Lastly, we acknowledge that many of the mentioned skin diseases may be represented outside of dermatology-specific journals, which our study did not examine. Nonetheless, we offer a valuable initial survey of these skin diseases in highly read and influential dermatology literature and hope that our study will prompt future necessary work to identify potential avenues for refinement of current research efforts.

Indeed, a primary purpose of the GBD collaboration is to aid clinical researchers in determining priority of research at local, national, and global levels [1]. Herein, our study provides insight into possible future investigative pathways for dermatologic research. For example, urticaria accounts for 11.18% (0.19/1.70) of skin-related DALYs (equal to psoriasis), yet these rank sixth and second in the percentage of the total publications, respectively [8]. Thus, researchers have opportunities to further elucidate causal mechanisms and the clinical impact of less-studied dermatologic conditions as a means to guide clinical decision-making, public health initiatives, policy changes, and education for dermatologists.

Dermatologic disease is a significant source of global DALYs. Although there has been significant research focus on dermatologic malignancies, dermatitis, and psoriasis in the last 5 years, this study highlights significant gaps and opportunities that remain in skin disease literature.