Dandona Lalit, Raban Magdalena Z, Guggilla Rama K, Bhatnagar Aarushi, Dandona Rakhi
BMC Med. 2009 Oct 14;7:59. doi: 10.1186/1741-7015-7-59.
An understanding of how public health research output from India is changing in relation to the disease burden and public health priorities is required in order to inform relevant research development. We therefore studied the trends in the public health research output from India during 2001-2008 that was readily available in the public domain.
The scope and type of the published research from India in 2007 that was included in the PubMed database was assessed and compared with a previous similar assessment for 2002. Papers were classified based on the review of abstracts and original public health research papers were assessed in detail. Impact factors for the journals were used to compute quality-adjusted research output. The websites of governmental organizations, academic and research institutions and international organizations were searched in order to identify and review reports on original public health research produced in India from 2001 to 2008. The reports were classified based on the topics covered and quality and their trends over time were assessed.
The number of original health research papers from India in PubMed doubled from 4494 in 2002 to 9066 in 2007. This included a 3.1-fold increase in public health research papers, but these comprised only 5% of the total papers in 2007. Within public health, the increase was lowest for the health system and policy category. Several major causes of disease burden in India continued to be underrepresented in the quality-adjusted public health research output in 2007. The number of papers evaluating population health interventions increased from 2002 to 2007, but there were none on the leading non-communicable causes of disease burden or on road traffic injuries. The number of identified original public health research reports increased by 64.7% from 204 in 2001-2004 to 336 in 2005-2008. The proportion of reports on reproductive and child health was very high but decreased slightly from 38.7% of the total in 2001-2004 to 31.5% in 2005-2008 (P = 0.09); those on the leading chronic non-communicable conditions and injuries increased from 6.4% to 13.4% (P = 0.01) but this was still much lower than their contribution to the disease burden. Health system/policy issues were the topic in 27.4% reports but health information issues were covered in a miniscule 0.6% reports. The proportion of reports that were evaluations increased slightly from 26% in 2001-2004 to 31.5% in 2005-2008, with this proportion being higher among the reports commissioned by international organizations (P < 0.001). The proportion of reports commissioned by Indian governmental organizations alone, or in collaboration with international organizations, doubled from 2001-2004 to 2005-2008 (P < 0.001). Only 25% of the total 540 reports had a quality score of adequate or better. The quality of reports produced by collaborations between Indian and international organizations was higher than those produced by Indian or international organizations alone (P < 0.001).
This is the first analysis from India that includes research reports in addition to published papers. It provides the most up-to-date understanding of public health research output from India. The increase in available public health research output and the increase in commissioning of this research by Indian governmental organizations are encouraging. However, the distribution of research topics and the quality of research reports continue to be unsatisfactory. It is necessary for health policy to address these continuing deficits in public health research in order to reduce the very large disease burden in India.
为指导相关研究发展，需要了解印度公共卫生研究产出相对于疾病负担和公共卫生重点是如何变化的。因此，我们研究了2001 - 2008年期间印度在公共领域易于获取的公共卫生研究产出趋势。
评估2007年印度发表在PubMed数据库中的研究的范围和类型，并与2002年之前的类似评估进行比较。通过摘要审查对论文进行分类，并详细评估原始公共卫生研究论文。使用期刊的影响因子来计算质量调整后的研究产出。搜索政府组织、学术和研究机构以及国际组织的网站，以识别和审查2001年至2008年印度产生的原始公共卫生研究报告。根据所涵盖的主题和质量对报告进行分类，并评估其随时间的趋势。
印度在PubMed中的原始卫生研究论文数量从2002年的4494篇增加了一倍，达到2007年的9066篇。其中公共卫生研究论文增加了3.1倍，但在2007年这些论文仅占总论文数的5%。在公共卫生领域，卫生系统和政策类别的增长最低。2007年，印度一些主要的疾病负担原因在质量调整后的公共卫生研究产出中仍然代表性不足。评估人群健康干预措施的论文数量从2002年到2007年有所增加，但没有关于主要非传染性疾病负担原因或道路交通伤害的论文。已识别的原始公共卫生研究报告数量从2001 - 2004年的204份增加了64.7%，达到2005 - 2008年的336份。生殖和儿童健康报告的比例非常高，但略有下降，从2001 - 2004年占总数的38.7%降至2005 - 2008年的31.5%（P = 0.09）；关于主要慢性非传染性疾病和伤害的报告从6.4%增加到13.4%（P = 0.01），但仍远低于它们对疾病负担的贡献。卫生系统/政策问题是27.4%报告的主题，但卫生信息问题仅在0.6%的报告中涉及。评估报告的比例从2001 - 2004年的26%略有增加到2005 - 2008年的31.5%，国际组织委托的报告中这一比例更高（P < 0.001）。仅由印度政府组织或与国际组织合作委托的报告比例从2001 - 2004年到2005 - 2008年增加了一倍（P < 0.001）。在总共540份报告中，只有25%的质量得分足够或更高。印度与国际组织合作产生的报告质量高于印度或国际组织单独产生的报告（P < 0.001）。
这是来自印度的首次分析，除了已发表的论文外还包括研究报告。它提供了对印度公共卫生研究产出的最新理解。可用公共卫生研究产出的增加以及印度政府组织对该研究委托的增加令人鼓舞。然而，研究主题的分布和研究报告的质量仍然不尽人意。卫生政策有必要解决公共卫生研究中这些持续存在的不足，以减轻印度非常大的疾病负担。
