Trends in diversity, equity and inclusion publications in neurological journals: 2015-2020

Contemporary information on health equity related efforts by scientific neurological journals, as measured by publications related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and health disparities related to social determinants of health (SDH) are lacking.

To assess the yearly rates of DEI and SDH related publications in the highest cited general neurology and neurological sub-specialty journals and compare them to the highest cited medical journals over a 6-year period.

We included publications from 15 general neurology and neurological subspecialty journals between January 1^st 2015 to December 31^st 2020. For comparison we included the 15 most cited medical journals as measured by H-Index. We performed a PubMed search in each of the listed journals using key MeSH terms. Two-proportions Z-test and chi-square trend analyses were used to compare differences between journal types.

Total yearly proportion of DEI and SDH related publications in neurological journals was 3.9% compared to 6.2% in the highest cited medical journals for years 2015 to 2020 (p=0.001). There was no change in overall trend in publications related to DEI and SDH topics in neurological (ρ = -0.082, p=0.45) or highest cited medical journals between 2015 and 2020 (ρ = -0.065, p=0.54).

Neurological journals had a significantly lower yearly proportion of DEI and SDH related publications compared to top-cited medical journals. Despite heightened awareness of racial/ethnic health disparities and inequities driven by SDH there was no change in related publications in neurological journals between 2015-2020.