Trends and future directions in childhood obesity research in the Nordic countries: a scientometric review.

Abstract

In the Nordic countries, about one in five children aged 5-18 years live with overweight or obesity. This scientometric review analyses the patterns of childhood obesity research in the Nordic region to inform future strategic decisions for researchers and policymakers. Using VOSviewer (version 1.6.20), we conducted a visualization analysis of Nordic childhood obesity literature from Scopus, covering publication up to February 2024. Additionally, R version 4.4.0, and Microsoft Excel 2016 were used to support further analysis. The analysis included trends of scientific outputs, citations, patterns, collaboration network, and leading institutions. In the Nordic countries, 4123 documents were published from 1981 to 2024. A consistent increase was identified in collaborative studies since 1981. Sweden is playing a leading role in childhood obesity research. A strong partnership was noted between Danish and Swedish researchers, as well as between Finnish and Swedish researchers, with Sweden being a central hub of collaboration. The highly cited publications primarily focused on non-pharmacological public health interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk factors. Significant advancement has been achieved in understanding childhood obesity primarily focused on the filed medicine and nursing. Overweight, obesity, and metrics like body mass index have been extensively investigated, but no focus has been placed on medication as treatment. Despite the increasing research in this field, knowledge gaps exist in genetics, molecular biology, emerging pharmacological treatment as well as behavioral and social sciences. Future research should utilize the unique Nordic databases and advanced methods to improve understanding and inform effective public health interventions.