BACKGROUND
Health economics is a branch of economics that focuses on the health sector and related topics both theoretically and practically. Practical medical resources can be maximized through health economics. However, little research has been conducted for comprehensive assessments of publications on health economies.
OBJECTIVE
This study aims to conduct a bibliometric analysis of health economics in the last decade to quantify the status and trend and aims to guide researchers to potential future research points of value from a global perspective.
METHODS
4163 scientific publications were collected from the Web of Science core collection, including the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-Expanded) and the Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI). Five scientometric tools (Citespacev6.1.R2, VOSviewer, Scimago Graphica, bibliometrix R-package, and Microsoft Excel 2019) were used to perform bibliometric analysis in terms of annual publications, the collaboration of authors, co-citation of authors, source, co-citation of journals, co-citation of references, and co-occurrence of keywords.
RESULTS
From 2012 to 2022, 4163 publications in the field of health economies were published by 21,145 authors who come from 478 institutions in 136 countries/regions. The United States and the United Kingdom produced the most publications, of which the United States maintained the dominant position in health economies, and it is the best practitioner in terms of cooperation; meanwhile, Univ Oxford of Sciences is the most productive institution. Karolinska Inst and Kings Coll London had a high centrality. Schwendicke F published the most papers, while Petrou S, Drummond M, and Augustovski F had the most co-citations. BMJ Open was the top 1 co-cited journal. In the top 10 co-cited references, five co-citation references expand on cost-effectiveness analyses which can be seen as a hotspot. The top 20 keywords, including "care," "impact," and "health," combined with the keywords clustering approach, it is concluded that "quality of life," "impact," and "care" in the process of diseases as well as "public health economy and policy" are hot spots in the field of the health economy.
CONCLUSIONS
Health economics research has been growing steadily over the past decade, with 2018 being a pivotal year for acceleration. The research mainly focuses on the strategic research of policy-making and resource allocation in professional disciplines. Comprehensive methodological research publications are hugely influential and complement mathematics, statistics, and economics with each other. Cost-benefit analysis is an indispensable research tool. Health economics will be a productive and efficient subject in the future.