Growth of Diabetes Research in United Arab Emirates: Current and Future Perspectives

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent metabolic diseases in the UAE. During the last two decades, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has experienced tremendous development in all fields including DM research. The present study sheds light on the growth in DM research in UAE and represents a guide for DM researchers to create more focused future directions in DM research. Objectives: The main objective of the present study is to investigate and document the changes that occurred in DM research in the UAE over the last two decades. Methods: Several research databases were reviewed and all the articles that involved any form of DM research within the UAE were selected. Inclusion criteria were: (i) Research studies related to DM and conducted by institutions based in UAE (ii) Research studies related to DM and conducted in the population of UAE and (iii) Research articles related to DM and the authors (principal investigators or co-investigators) are from UAE. Results: Between the years of 1996 and 2000, there was an average of 6.4 articles about DM being published per year. This pattern changed dramatically between years 2011 to 2015 where an average of 22.8 articles were being published. In addition, a significant increase was noticed in the year 2015 with 42 articles published per year. It was also found that 46.8% articles involved clinical study, 12.1% were basic research, 17.5% cross-sectional studies, 8.91% reviews, 8.2% were cohort and all the other types of research represented about 5.58%. Conclusion: Significant progress has been noticed in DM research in the UAE during the last two decades. Based on the findings of the present study, more focus should be given to the case reports and clinical trials.