Developmental disabilities in Africa: A scientometric review.

Developmental disabilities are disproportionately more investigated in higher-income countries. However, global prevalence of developmental disabilities indicate that a large proportion of individuals with disabilities reside in low- and middle-income nations. The present work therefore aims to conduct a scientometric review to survey available literature on developmental disabilities in low- and middle-income countries belonging to the continent of Africa. A literature search was conducted on Scopus, where a total of 1720 relevant publications (and an accompanying 66 thousand references) were found, representing research conducted between 1950 to 2022. Then, document co-citation analysis was performed to chart significant co-citation relationships between relevant articles and their cited references. The generated network based on document co-citation analysis revealed a total of 14 distinct thematic research clusters and 12 significant documents that have been frequently cited in the literature on developmental disabilities in Africa. The scientometric review revealed a trend of broadening research towards systems of care, away from a medical model of disease. It is projected that future research will continue to capitalise on inter-disciplinary strengths to arrive at a more nuanced understanding of developmental disability from all levels - individuals, families, to communities. Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Citation

Mengyu Lim, Alessandro Carollo, Michelle Jin Yee Neoh, Marzia Sacchiero, Atiqah Azhari, Giulia Balboni, Peter Marschik, Anders Nordahl-Hansen, Dagmara Dimitriou, Gianluca Esposito. Developmental disabilities in Africa: A scientometric review. Research in developmental disabilities. 2023 Feb;133:104395

Mesh Tags

PMID: 36587527

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