Twenty Years of International Research on First Aid: A Bibliometric Visualization of Scientific Outputs

Although first aid research is a wide-ranging and diverse field within medical science, so far no attempts have been made to provide a holistic view of international scientific outputs in the first aid domain. To determine strategic directions for conducting future studies, it is important to understand the status of the research, including its frontiers and blind spots. This study explored the global landscape of first aid research using bibliometric visualization analysis of relevant literature published within the last 20 years. The search yielded a total of 2,057 relevant papers. There was a trend of increasing annual numbers of publications throughout the 20 year period. The following topics were identified as the mainstream directions of first aid research: cross-sectional studies on attitudes and knowledge of first aid; cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation; bleeding and hemorrhage control; burns, scalds, and their management; envenomations and their management; and systematic evaluation of the scientific evidence. Evidence evaluation is one of the main frontiers of first aid research. Studies concerning first aid for the most common and deadliest diseases, including myocardial infarction and stroke, are not in the scope of contemporary international first aid research. Considering that effective implementation of first aid can reduce morbidity and mortality, it is advisable to advance research on first aid management of major emergencies that are the most common potentially avoidable causes of death.