Mapping the research trend of PCOS: from 2006 to 2022

Abstract

Abstract Background: Multi-field specialists are required to assist in treatment. The large amount of literature on PCOS and its complex mechanism are difficult to sort out by reading the literature alone, thus we conduct a bibliometric study on PCOS, aiming to clarify the current research results of PCOS and predict the future research hotspots. Objectives: Our research aims to map the research trend of PCOS from 2006 to 2022, and help readers quickly understand its research history and future development trend. Methods: Literatures published from January 1, 2006 to June 30, 2022 were retrieved in the PubMed database, and devided into 4 periods. Of each peroid, major mesh terms/subheadings were extracted and used to conduct co-occurrence matrices and term-article matrices by Bibliographic Item Co-Occurrence Matrix Builder (BICOMB) software. The gCLUTO software was used to bicluster the term-article matrix. Social network analysis was conducted based on the word co-occurrence matrix by Gephi software. Results: From 2006 to 2010, research mainly focused on the infertility etiology and therapy of PCOS. In next period, from 2011 to 2015, research hotspots shifted to infertility drug therapy of PCOS and obesity and infertility of PCOS. After that, from 2016 to 2019, the relationship between insulin resistance and blood hormones, obesity and infertility, PCOS genetics and metabolism has attracted people's attention. In recent two years, the research of cardiovascular diseases and PCOS has become a hot topic, and epigenetics of PCOS has attracted extensive attention. Conclusions: This study well describes the research and development process of PCOS in the past 16 years, as well as the research hotspots and trends in the future.