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Original article
Sport and exercise medicine research activity in the Arab world: a 15-year bibliometric analysis
  1. Mohamad Y Fares1,2,
  2. Jawad Fares1,2,
  3. Hasan Baydoun6,
  4. Youssef Fares1,7
  1. 1Neuroscience Research Center, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
  2. 2Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
  3. 6Division of Orthopedic Surgery, Department of Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon
  4. 7Department of Neurosurgery, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon
  1. Correspondence to Dr Jawad Fares; jyf04{at}mail.aub.edu

Abstract

Background The role of sports in decreasing the prevalence of many diseases has led to a growing interest in the field of sport and exercise medicine. But sport and exercise medicine still remains new to the Arab world, waiting to be explored. The aim of this study is to describe and characterise sport and exercise medicine research activity in the Arab world between 2002 and 2016.

Methods The PubMed database was used to search for publications related to sport and exercise medicine. Publications were classified according to the country of origin and filtered to include publications between 2002 and 2016. Research output was analysed with respect to gross domestic product (GDP) and population of each country.

Results A total of 1148 papers related to sport and exercise medicine were found to be published in the Arab countries between 2002 and 2016. Sport-and-exercise-medicine-related publications constituted 0.86% of the total biomedical research papers published in the Arab world and 0.49% of the world’s sport and exercise medicine literature. The number of sport-and-exercise-medicine-related publications per country ranged from zero to 352, with Qatar occupying the top spot. Tunisia ranked first with respect to publications per average GDP, while Qatar ranked first with respect to publications per average population. Comoros, Mauritania, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen were found to have no publications related to sport and exercise medicine.

Conclusion Sport and exercise medicine is a novel field in the Arab world. Recognising the barriers facing sport and exercise medicine research and exploring them meticulously remains an essential part of the plan to improve the Arab world’s output and contribution in this field.

  • sport medicine
  • arab world
  • sports medicine research
  • sports medicine science

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjsem-2017-000292

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @NRC_LU @DrJawadFares

    • Contributors MYF, JF and YF designed the study. MYF performed data collection. All authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation, and drafting of the manuscript.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.