Academic Productivity in the Field of Otolaryngology Head and Neck
Surgery from 1996 to 2019 in Regard to National Economic indicators
among the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and
Development
Abstract
Abstract Background: The relation between health investment and research
has been portrayed previously in several medical fields, showing a
positive relation between economic resources and academic yield.
Purpose: To assess the relations between various economic and
bibliometric parameters in otolaryngology - head and neck surgery
(ORL-HNS) of the OECD countries. Methods: Data regarding bibliometric
parameters in ORL-HNS; number of publications, citations, citations per
document and H index, between the years 1996 and 2019, were gathered
from the Scimago Journal and Country Rank source. These data were then
analysed in several breakdowns – seldom county, regional and language
comparisons, in order to assess variations in ORL-HNS scholar activity.
Economic data regarding each OECD country; GDP per capita, total health
expenditure as percent of the GDP and GERD as percent of the GDP were
gathered from the OECD and World Bank websites. The correlation between
economic and bibliometric indicators was analysed. Results: Among
209,949 documents analysed, a strong correlation was found between H
index and health expenditure (r=0.734, p=0.000), and a moderate
connection was found between H index and both GDP per capita (r=0.459,
p=0.005) and GERD as percent of GDP (r=0.579, p=0.000). Health
expenditure showed the strongest correlations to bibliometric
parameters. Nonetheless, most data showed some degree of positive
correlations between economics and scholar productivity. Conclusion:
This study emphasizes the positive relation between scholar productivity
and economic indicators, mostly health expenditure, in the OECD
countries in the field of ORL-HNS, implying the importance of health
investment to ORL-HNS research.