The evolution of hypospadias publications: A bibliometric approach

Abstract

Background/objective: Although the increasing prevalence of hypospadias has been reported in many countries, there is a lack of bibliometric studies that make a holistic assessment of the publications about this issue. This study aims to make a holistic evaluation, latest developments, and trend topics about hypospadias publications between 1980 and 2018 through bibliometric analysis. Methods: All the publications about hypospadias published in the Web of Science index between 1980 and 2018 were downloaded and analyzed using bibliometric methods. The Spearman's correlation coefficient was utilized to analyze the correlations between economic productivity and performance of the countries on hypospadias. Linear regression analysis was performed to estimate the number of publications for the following years. Results: Bibliometric analyses were performed with 1940 articles. With 527 (27.2%) publications, the USA was the country that made the most contribution to the literature. The top active 3 journals were the Journal of Urology, Journal of Pediatric Urology, and Urology. A high correlation was detected between hypospadias publication productivity and GDP (r = 0.791, p < 0.001). The regression analysis results showed that the expected number of articles to be produced was 95 (75-116) for 2019 and 106 (47-164) for 2024. Conclusions: This study provides a holistic evaluation of the articles about hypospadias, which is an anomaly that should be repaired and treated with surgery due to its potential problems for the children at kindergarten and school age. Increasing the collaboration between especially developing countries and research in different countries with samples from different communities through multidisciplinary studies are recommended. (C) 2020 Asociacion Espanola de Andrologia, Medicina Sexual y Reproductiva. Published by Elsevier Espana, S.L.U. All rights reserved.