Scientometrics
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Psychiatry. Jul 19, 2022; 12(7): 982-994
Published online Jul 19, 2022. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v12.i7.982
Mapping the landscape and structure of global research on binge eating disorder: Visualization and bibliometric analysis
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Muna Shakhshir, Amani S Abushanab, Amer Koni, Moyad Shahwan, Ammar Abdulrahman Jairoun, Samah W Al-Jabi
Sa'ed H Zyoud, Amani S Abushanab, Amer Koni, Samah W Al-Jabi, 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
Author contributions: Zyoud SH conceptualized and designed the research project, took care of data management and analysis, generated figures, made significant contributions to the manuscript’s existing literature search and interpretation of the manuscript, and drafted the manuscript; Shakhshir M, Abushanab AS, Al-Jabi SW, Jairoun AA, Shahwan M and Koni A were involved in the interpretation of the data, contributed to the manuscript writing, 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: May 11, 2022
Revised: May 22, 2022
Accepted: June 23, 2022
Article in press: June 23, 2022
Published online: July 19, 2022
Processing time: 181 Days and 12.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Binge-eating disorder (BED) is a clinical syndrome and is considered the most common type of eating disorder. However, our understanding of the global performance and progress of BED research is limited.

AIM

To describe and perform a bibliometric analysis of the state of BED research.

METHODS

The term ‘Binge eating’ was searched in the title throughout the previous year’s up to December 31, 2020. We searched the Scopus and Reference Citation Analysis for publications on Binge eating. The VOSviewer software version 1.6.17 was used to produce the network visualization map of the most frequent author, collaborative relationships between countries/regions, and to determine the hotspots related to binge eating research. In addition, conventional bibliometric indicators were generated.

RESULTS

The search strategy found 2713 total articles and an average of 62 articles per year. Among them, ‘Article’ represented 82.49% of the publications (n = 2238 articles) and was the most frequent type, followed by reviews (n = 243; 8.96%). The number of publications increased steadily during the last decade of the study period. One hundred and thirty-two countries contributed to binge eating research, with 1495 (55.11%) articles published in the United States, followed by Italy with 256 (9.44%), the United Kingdom with 183 (6.75%), and Germany with 182 (6.71%). Currently, the main hot topics related to BED are ‘type of treatment and management and treatment provided to BED”; “processes and pathways to binge eating”; and ‘diagnosis, signs and symptoms, comorbidities and prevalence and associated factors with BED’.

CONCLUSION

The number of publications has increased noticeably during the previous decade. There are indeed relatively few publications on BED from low-and middle-income nations, so much is to be learned from the experience of all countries. Studies on this topic are critical in all countries to discover risk factors and effective intervention measures. Although our findings are preliminary, they imply that the future prospects for interventions aimed at BED management are bright, focusing on complex models of care and long-term maintenance of therapeutic gains.

Keywords: Binge-eating disorder; Scopus; Bibliometric; VOSviewer; Eating disorders.

Core Tip: Over the last decade, research on binge eating disorder (BED) has focused on various issues. A review of the published literature would aid in determining the density and gaps of research. The number of publications related to BED has significantly increased over the last decade. Research on this topic is critical for identifying risk factors and developing effective intervention strategies in all countries. Although our findings are preliminary, they suggest that the future of BED management interventions is bright, emphasizing complex models of care and long-term maintenance of therapeutic gains.