Research Trends in Mother–Child Healthcare, 1966–1995.

Objective: To explore trends in mother–child healthcare (MCHC) research over the past 30 years. Methods: Classifications of Medline articles were made at 5-year intervals using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) as classifiers. Papers were classified in mutually and non-mutually exclusive categories by subject (mother and four age groups of children) and type of research (clinical, basic, epidemiologic, and unclassified) and its various combinations. Results: The number of MCHC papers increased from 34,110 in 1966 to 65,028 in 1995, but the proportion of all Medline articles (18–21%) was relatively stable. There were remarkable long-term temporal stabilities in the proportions of MCHC papers of mothers and the four age groups of children. Most papers dealt with child (46%) and adolescents (45%), and only 11% studied mother and children together. Regression analysis indicated that a linear increase in number of MCHC papers in Medline (1053/year) was represented largely by single-age and combinations of age children, especially adolescence. However, the slope for mother-plus-children papers (113/year) was substantially higher than for mothers alone (64/year). Clinical papers (52%) were the dominant type of MCHC research, but the proportions of basic and epidemiologic papers and their combinations with clinical papers have increased substantially in the past decade. Conclusions: There has been a dominance of clinical and child-related papers in MCHC research, which may be a reflection of restricted outlooks of specialists in the area. This may change soon if the tendency toward increasing numbers of basic and epidemiologic papers holds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]