Research trends on the relationship between air pollution and cardiovascular diseases in 2013-2022 – A scientometric analysis

Abstract

Abstract Exposure to air pollution is linked with an elevated risk of cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and CVDs-related death. Despite the increasing concern over this issue, there is a shortage of scientometric analysis on the subject in existing databases. Therefore, we propose a scientometric study to explore research hotspots and directions in this topical field over the past decade. The present study employed the core collection of Web of Science (WoS) to obtain all relevant publications. Subsequently, Excel, the Bibliometix R-package, CiteSpace, and VOSviewer were utilized to analyze literature information, encompassing but not limited to annual publications, highly cited papers and co-cited references, journals, authors, countries, organizations, and keywords. Research on air pollution and CVDs has remarkable increase over the past decade. The top researchers are Kan H, Brook RD, Peters A, and Schwartz J. The 3144 articles were published by 4448 institutions in 131 countries/regions. The leading countries are the USA and China. Environmental Research was the most published journal. Mortality, hospital admissions, oxidative stress, inflammation, long-term exposure, fine particulate matter, and PM2.5 are the top areas that merit further investigation and hold significant potential for advancing our understanding of the complex relationship between air pollution and CVDs.