Five Decades of Research Progress in Air Pollution, Children’s Respiratory Health, and Emergency Department Visits: A Bibliometric Analysis

Air pollution is a global environmental health concern. Our study aims to examine the collective scientific impact of air pollution, children's respiratory health, and emergency department visits during the last five decades. Original articles, review papers, and conference proceedings in the English language published from 1972 to 2022 were obtained after a comprehensive search of the Scopus database using the terms air pollution, children, respiratory health, and emergency department visit. The Biblioshiny web application of the R software (R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria) was used to analyse the publication trend and identify the top authors and journals of the subject. The countries’ collaborative network was mapped, and the authors’ trending keywords were tracked using a thematic map. In total, 1,309 publications authored by 6,342 authors from 483 sources were retrieved. Three distinctive collaborative network clusters were observed, with the United States as the connecting central node. Among the 39 trending keywords identified, particulate matter had constantly been a motor theme with an emerging interest in individual pollutants, specific diseases, and time series analysis. In conclusion, political will is a strong driver for research on air pollution, children’s respiratory health, and emergency department visits, which is further enhanced by technological advancement that increases the availability and accessibility of air pollution and patient data. The trend for future studies is time series analysis and research on the impact of individual air pollutants on specific respiratory disorders in children.