The landscape of dementia research in Brazil from 2010 to 2021: a Scopus-based bibliometric study.

Background:  Several studies have sought to investigate the trajectory of scholarly publications on dementia. Yet, there has been limited attention to contributions from Latin America.

Objective:  To provide a comprehensive overview of the literature output on dementia in Brazil.

Methods:  We conducted a Scopus-based literature search (2010-2021) for publications by authors affiliated with Brazil.

Results:  Out of 5,534 reports, 2,528 met the inclusion criteria. The annual growth rate of publications on dementia (9.9%, SD = 15.5) closely paralleled that of general health-related literature (6.7%, SD = 4.9). Most publications were categorized into the areas of diagnosis (33.4%) and disease mechanisms, origins, and models (32.7%). Epidemiological studies (4%), clinical trials (1%), and economic analyses (0.3%) are scarce. Based on the first affiliation of Brazil-affiliated authors, 89.3% of dementia output stemmed from Southeast (68.4%) and South (20.9%) of Brazil. Nonetheless, the state of São Paulo alone accounted for 41.1%, contributing to 60.1% of the Southeast. First and second authorships were predominantly held by female researchers, whereas male researchers occupied most of the second-to-last and last authorships. Overall, 1,812 (71.7%) were published in 346 foreign journals and 716 (28.3%) in 43 Brazilian journals. Notably, nearly half of the reports published in Brazil are concentrated in two journals: Dementia e Neuropsychologia (31.4%) and Arquivos de Neuro-Psiquiatria (15.2%).

Conclusion:  There is a pressing need for more studies in dementia epidemiology and economic cost, in addition to more research across all Brazilian regions.