Michał Witkowski

Topics and dynamics of the publishing in the field of public health and health services in the years 2000-2012, based on the analysis of the Polish Medical Bibliography

The aim of the analysis is to present the subject-matter and the dynamics of the literature in the field of public health and health services, in the years 2000-2012, through the bibliometric analysis of the literature in 11 subject areas. Research questions: Which areas of public health and health services abound at this period in the largest number of publications? Can we observe in the period 2000-2012 growth in number of publications? Is it possible to see any patterns in the dynamics of publishing in particular areas? In which journals the articles on topics related to public health and health services are published most often?
Method: The thematic areas of public health were identified following the basic functions of the public health highlighted in subject literature, and widened by inclusion of “management and organization of health care” and “health economics”. The Polish Medical Bibliography (PBL) was searched to find all types of publications published in the years 2000-2012, indexed with the major headings (descriptors) corresponding with the selected topics. The data obtained from PBL was processed by especially written computer program.
Results: A total of 24,631 articles on predetermined topics were recorded in PBL, in the chosen period. Dominate publications on “management and organization”, “law regulation” and “health economics”. Together they constitute more than half of all publications. Next, most frequently presented in publications issue was “monitoring the health of the population”. Incomparably less is publications on the prevention of diseases and their causes. During this period, there are only few comparative studies published showing Poland among other countries. Also, very little work is published about the aging of the Polish population seen as a public health problem. From 2000 to 2010, the number of publications in the entire public health area has remained relatively stable. From 2010 begins gradual decrease in the number of articles in almost all fields, with the exception of “disease monitoring”,” prevention of accidents and injuries” and “epidemiological surveillance”. More than half (51%) of the publications were published in 55 journals, of which only 20 deal extensively with issues of public health. Other articles are distributed in more than 300 other bio-medical journals.
Conclusions: Public health and health services fields, as areas of research and professional discussion in Poland are dominated by issues of management, organization, economics and law regulations. Number of publications in all analyzed subjects (public health + management+economics) in the years 2000-2012, shows a weak growth, with significant differences between individual areas and sub-areas. In such areas as “disease prevention”, “management”, “health economics”,” quality of care” issues - the number of publications is falling. Dispersion of publications in hundreds of magazines, mostly bio-medical, probably is not conducive to the consolidation of public health.