Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 7, 2022; 28(25): 2981-2993
Published online Jul 7, 2022. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v28.i25.2981
Mapping the global research landscape on nutrition and the gut microbiota: Visualization and bibliometric analysis
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Muna Shakhshir, Amani S Abushanab, Samah W Al-Jabi, Amer Koni, Moyad Shahwan, Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun, Adham Abu Taha
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Amani S Abushanab, Samah W Al-Jabi, Amer Koni, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Poison Control and Drug Information Center, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Clinical Research Centre, An-Najah National University Hospital, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Muna Shakhshir, Department of Nutrition, An-Najah National University Hospital, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Amer Koni, Division of Clinical Pharmacy, Hematology and Oncology Pharmacy Department, An-Najah National University Hospital, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Moyad Shahwan, Department of Pharmacy, Ajman University, Ajman 346, United Arab Emirates
Moyad Shahwan, Centre of Medical and Bio-allied Health Sciences Research, Ajman University, Ajman 346, United Arab Emirates
Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun, Department of Health and Safety, Dubai Municipality, Dubai 67, United Arab Emirates
Adham Abu Taha, Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Adham Abu Taha, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Nablus 44839, Palestine
Author contributions: Zyoud SH designed the study, collected the data, analyzed the data, made major contributions to the manuscript’s existing literature search and interpretation, and drafted the manuscript; Shakhshir M, Abushanab AS, Al-Jabi SW, Jairoun AA, Shahwan M, Koni A and Abu Taha A were involved in the interpretation of the data, and made revisions to the initial draft; all authors provided a critical review and approved the final manuscript before submission.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sa'ed H Zyoud, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Clinical and Community Pharmacy, College of Medicine and Health Sciences, An-Najah National University, Academic Street, Nablus 44839, Palestine. saedzyoud@yahoo.com
Received: January 18, 2022
Peer-review started: January 18, 2022
First decision: April 11, 2022
Revised: April 30, 2022
Accepted: May 28, 2022
Article in press: May 28, 2022
Published online: July 7, 2022
Processing time: 166 Days and 19.4 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Nutrition is a significant modifiable element that influences the composition of the gastrointestinal microbiota, implying the possibility of therapeutic diet methods that manipulate the composition and diversity of the microbial.

AIM

To overview research papers on nutrition and gut microbiota and determines the hotspots in this field at the global level.

METHODS

Scopus and Reference Citation Analysis were used to construct a bibliometric technique. It was decided to create bibliometric indicators and mapping as in most previous studies. 2012 through 2021 served as the study's timeframe.

RESULTS

A total of 5378 documents from the Scopus database were selected for analysis. Of all retrieved studies, 78.52% were research papers (n = 4223), followed by reviews (n = 820; 15.25%). China ranked first with a total number of articles of 1634 (30.38%), followed by the United States in second place with a total number of articles of 1307 (24.3%). In the last decade, emerging hotspots for gut microbiota and nutrition research included "gut microbiota metabolism and interaction with dietary components", "connection between the gut microbiota and weight gain", and "the influence of high-fat diet and gut microbiota on metabolic disorders".

CONCLUSION

This is the first thorough bibliometric analysis of nutrition and gut microbiota publications conducted on a global level. Investigation of the association between nutrition/diet and the gut microbiota is still in its infancy and will be expanded in the future. However, according to recent trends, the “effect of gut microbiota and high-fat diet on metabolic disorders" will be an increasing concern in the future.

Keywords: Gut microbiota; Microbiome; Nutrition; Diet; Bibliometric; Scopus; VOSviewer

Core Tip: The number of publications on the gut microbiota has progressively expanded as the potential clinical implications of the gut microbiota have become better known, and this has become an emerging research subject. Therefore, this comprehensive bibliometric study intends to provide an overview of the current state of worldwide nutrition and gut microbiota research and to stay ahead of emerging trends and important turns in the field's evolution. Investigation on the association between nutrition/diet and the gut microbiota is still in its infancy and will be expanded in the future. However, according to recent trends, the “effect of gut microbiota and high-fat diet on metabolic disorders" will be a bigger worry in the future.