Bibliometrics indicators in the Caribbean islands: French West Indies authorship analyzed from 1989 to 2018

Abstract BackgroundBibliometrics are mathematical methods used in various scientific domains to measure scientific output based on the number of publications, the prestige of the journal, and the number of citations of the research after its publication. To the best of our knowledge, only a few bibliometric studies have been performed in the Caribbean or the French West Indies. The aim of this study was to quantify the collaborations and scientific output between the two university teaching hospitals of Martinique and Guadeloupe, at the regional, national and international level.MethodA bibliometrics analysis was performed from the international databases Web of Science and PubMed, for the period from 1989 to 2018 inclusive (30 years). Three types of bibliometric indicators were used, namely quantitative indicators, performance indicators, and organisation-specific indicators. Affiliations of the first and last authors were identified from PubMed. Between 2014 and 2018, we recorded the affiliations of all authors (from the first to the last author) who collaborated on an article with the University Hospital of either Martinique of GuadeloupeResultsBetween 1989 and 2018, a total of 1,522 indexed articles were published with at least one author affiliated to either the University Hospital of Martinique (N=827) or the University Hospital of Guadeloupe (N=685). The majority of articles for both hospitals were in category Q1 (35.8% for Martinique, and 35.2% for Guadeloupe). In Martinique, over the last 30 years, the 3 main research areas have been clinical neurology, ophthalmology and surgery, together representing 28.7% of all research areas, with the highest number of articles published in the field of clinical neurology (n=81). In the University Hospital of Guadeloupe, the area of hematology was largely represented, with 79 articles published. For both hospitals, the first and last authors of the articles published were mainly from mainland France, and from either Martinique or Guadeloupe university hospitalConclusionThis quantitative and qualitative analysis shows the development of medical and scientific research in Martinique and Guadeloupe over the last three decades, as well as the extent of their collaborative partnerships at national and international level.</jats:p

The association between macrovascular complications and intensive care admission, invasive mechanical ventilation, and mortality in people with diabetes hospitalized for coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19)

International audienceAbstract Background It is not clear whether pre-existing macrovascular complications (ischemic heart disease, stroke or peripheral artery disease) are associated with health outcomes in people with diabetes mellitus hospitalized for COVID-19. Methods We conducted cohort studies of adults with pre-existing diabetes hospitalized for COVID-19 infection in the UK, France, and Spain during the early phase of the pandemic (between March 2020—October 2020). Logistic regression models adjusted for demographic factors and other comorbidities were used to determine associations between previous macrovascular disease and relevant clinical outcomes: mortality, intensive care unit (ICU) admission and use of invasive mechanical ventilation (IMV) during the hospitalization. Output from individual logistic regression models for each cohort was combined in a meta-analysis. Results Complete data were available for 4,106 (60.4%) individuals. Of these, 1,652 (40.2%) had any prior macrovascular disease of whom 28.5% of patients died. Mortality was higher for people with compared to those without previous macrovascular disease (37.7% vs 22.4%). The combined crude odds ratio (OR) for previous macrovascular disease and mortality for all four cohorts was 2.12 (95% CI 1.83–2.45 with an I 2 of 60%, reduced after adjustments for age, sex, type of diabetes, hypertension, microvascular disease, ethnicity, and BMI to adjusted OR 1.53 [95% CI 1.29–1.81]) for the three cohorts. Further analysis revealed that ischemic heart disease and cerebrovascular disease were the main contributors of adverse outcomes. However, proportions of people admitted to ICU (adjOR 0.48 [95% CI 0.31–0.75], I 2 60%) and the use of IMV during hospitalization (adjOR 0.52 [95% CI 0.40–0.68], I 2 37%) were significantly lower for people with previous macrovascular disease. Conclusions This large multinational study of people with diabetes mellitus hospitalized for COVID-19 demonstrates that previous macrovascular disease is associated with higher mortality and lower proportions admitted to ICU and treated with IMV during hospitalization suggesting selective admission criteria. Our findings highlight the importance correctly assess the prognosis and intensive monitoring in this high-risk group of patients and emphasize the need to design specific public health programs aimed to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection in this subgroup