Trend of Women's Health Research in Korea, 2012-2020: Topic and Text Network Analysis

With the epidemiological transition, sociodemographic changes and differential lifetime experiences of women, women's health research improves knowledge of diverse health issues and the impact of policies. To explore the initiatives of women's health research in Korea, the present study examined the trends and topics of research on women's health funded by the government.

We searched all research projects on women's health funded by the government between 2012 and 2020 in Korea using the National Science & Technology Information Service database. We reviewed all the titles and abstract of the projects and examined the research trends by year. Content analysis was performed using both deductive and inductive approaches. Text network analysis and visualization by topic were conducted for keywords with a minimum of 10 occurrences in the title and abstract.

Total number and funding amount of research projects on women's health in 2020 increased by 2.4 and 2.2 times over 2012 levels, respectively. The Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety funded 20.9% of all projects. The majority of the topics (59.8%) addressed breast and gynecological cancers. Those on sexual and reproductive health accounted for 16.7%, with steep growth in the number (6.1 times) and funding (11.1 times) over 2012 levels. The topic analysis presented a more complex keyword network in 2020 than in 2012; however, the keywords frequently used in 2020 were similar to those of 2012.

Women's health research projects have been growing in number and funding, with limited diversity in topics. Diversifying the topics and focusing on issues beyond the breast and pregnancy would be needed to reflect the complete life course of women. Institutionalization of diverse communication channels with various interest groups for women's health would be needed to better understand women's health needs from a public health perspective.