Exploring the evolving relationship between children and youth obesity and depression: A bibliometric analysis...

Depression, a prevalent mental disorder characterized by prolonged low mood and diminished interest in activities, involves complex interactions among genetic, biological, psychosocial, and environmental factors in its pathogenesis. Notably, the dramatic global surge in children and youth obesity prevalence over recent decades has emerged as a major public health challenge, with growing evidence suggesting potential associations between this metabolic disorder and the development of depression. This study aims to evaluate the research progression in this field via bibliometric methods.

We utilized the Web of Science Core Collection database to retrieve articles pertaining to children and youth obesity and depression published between 1976 and 2025. Bibliometric analysis was performed using VOSviewer, CiteSpace, and R Studio.

4550 articles were identified based on the predetermined criteria. The USA and the University of Minnesota have the highest number of publications. Tanofsky-Kraff, Marian was the most productive author, and the journal with the most articles published was BMC Public Health. The most frequently used keywords were "obesity," "depression," and "children", and the most cited articles were written by Stice, E. The keywords that have emerged recently are "weight stigma", "students", "anxiety", "polycystic ovary syndrome", and "gut microbiota".

This study, revealed the evolving trends in the field of research on childhood obesity and depression. The research focus shifted from early topics such as mental health and eating disorders to weight stigma, gut microbiota, and COVID-19. Future research should focus on the biological mechanisms between obesity and depression, and gender differences.