Abstract
ABSTRACTIntroductionTrends and gaps in perinatal anxiety research remain unknown. The objective of this bibliometric review was to analyze the characteristics and trends in published research on perinatal anxiety to inform future research.MethodsAll published literature in Web of Science on perinatal anxiety from January 1, 1920 to December 31, 2020 were screened by two reviewers. VOSViewer was utilized to visualize linkages between publications. Bibliometric data were extracted from abstracts.ResultsThe search strategy identified 4,561 publications. After screening, 2,203 publications related to perinatal anxiety were used for the visualization analysis. For the bibliometric data, 1,534 publications had perinatal anxiety as a primary focus. There were 7,910 different authors, over half named only once (55.5%), from 63 countries. 495 journals were identified, with over half (56.0%) publishing only one article. Most articles were published between 2011-2020 (75.9%). In terms of perinatal timing, over half (54.2%) published on antenatal anxiety. Only 6.0% of studies reported on perinatal anxiety in fathers and 56.5% reported on postpartum depression.LimitationsWeb of Science was solely used, and manual screening of each publication was required.ConclusionThis bibliometric analysis found: (1) perinatal is a growing field of research, with publications increasing over time; (2) there is variation in authors and journals; (3) over half of the publications focus on antenatal anxiety; (4) paternal anxiety is understudied; and (5) only 6% of publications came from low and lower-middle income countries. Gaps related to maternal postnatal, and all paternal perinatal anxiety exist.
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory