Endocrine research in Bangladesh: Evolution and current trend

BACKGROUND: The contribution of Bangladesh to global endocrine research is not quantified. We intend to summarize the progress Bangladesh has made in endocrine research. METHODS: Global and country-specific data up to December 2021 from the PubMed database were retrieved using the keywords ‘diabetes mellitus’, ‘obesity’, ‘thyroid’, ‘adrenal’ and ‘pituitary’; the keywords ‘gonad’ OR ‘hypogonadism’ OR ‘PCOS’ OR ‘sexual dysfunction’ were used for retrieving data of reproductive endocrinology research; and ‘bone metabolism’ OR ‘osteoporosis’ OR ‘vitamin D’ were used for bone metabolism research. Bangladeshi contributions to endocrine research were compared to global and country-specific data during the periods ‘1972–2021’ and ‘2012–2021’. RESULTS: Bangladesh has 2,467 articles in the PubMed database in different fields of endocrinology during the period 1972–2021, which is 0.132% of the total global endocrine publications published in this timeframe. We observed a gradual increment in the number of Bangladeshi publications over the last five decades in all fields of endocrinology. Over the last 10 years, the contribution has risen to 0.226% with 2003 publications. CONCLUSIONS: Currently, Bangladesh contributes very little to global endocrine research. An urgent call to amplify research works by Bangladeshi endocrinologists is of utmost importance to catch up with the global publications in endocrinology.