The Progress and Research Trends of Statin Medications: Advanced Epidemiological and Bibliometrical Assessment

Abstract

Statin medications are considered as important lipid lowering agents to prevent subsequent cardiovascular events. However, there was limited evidence regarding the bibliometric analysis on preclinical and clinical studies. In January, 2021, the data was retrieved from Scopus and Dimensions database. For detail analysis, we focused on Scopus. Thirty-three thousand two hundred forty-seven research documents were found in the database which contained the word "Statin" either in titles, abstracts and/or keywords of the research documents. They mostly comprised of research articles (n = 22586/67.93%), reviews (n = 6366/19.15%). Scopus classified these documents in various subject categorized like medicine, biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, pharmacology, toxicology and pharmaceutics, nursing, neuroscience, biological sciences, immunology, and microbiology to name a few. The highest documents are published in 2016 (n = 540/7.16%), followed by 2015 (n = 534/7.08%), 2017 (n = 527/6.99%), 2014 (n = 514/6.81%), and 2020 (n = 504/6.68%). The top sources as well as total number of authors, institutes, and countries involved in publications are described. For detail analysis, we designed the publication and citation clubs. Based on Vosviewer analysis we also provided details about co-authorship network for authors, institutes, and countries. In order to understanding the research focus of the publications, we performed the co-words analysis. The present study may provide details and research trends about statin publications.