Research trends in mother-child healthcare, 1966-1995

To explore trends in mother-child healthcare (MCHC) research over the past 30 years.

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.

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.

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.