Orofacial cleft research and the Sustainable Development Goals: a bibliometric study

Orofacial clefts (OFC) are common congenital conditions occurring in 1 of 700 births. They have lifelong nutritional, educational, and psychosocial impacts, and require multidisciplinary care from the antenatal period into adulthood. In 2010, the World Health Organization resolved to strengthen responses to congenital conditions, aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 targets. In this bibliometric mapping exercise based on inferred SDG themes from metadata, we evaluate the extent to which OFC research mentions these SDGs, examining differences across country income groups.

We conducted a keyword search and content analysis of OFC articles published between 1842 and 2024 using a Python script developed by Elsevier. The script inferred SDG themes directly from titles, abstracts, and keywords. We analysed SDG mentions, thematic relevance, and the World Bank income classifications of publishing institutions, and used Spearman's rank correlation to calculate the statistical significance of the correlation between SDG mentions and the income group of the country of the authors.

Of 39,176 publications, 5,598 (14.0%) referenced at least one SDG, yielding 6,096 unique mentions. Additionally, 4,896 (87.5%) of SDG-related OFC papers were successfully linked to an author country income group. SDG 3 ('good health) was most cited (n = 4,255 references, 69.8%). Its frequency decreased significantly as country group GDP decreased. SDG 17 ('partnerships') became increasingly frequent as country income decreased, suggesting the fundamental role of partnerships in low-income countries. SDG 4 ('education') was mentioned more frequently in higher-income countries, but less in lower-income ones. Lastly, nutrition was mentioned more frequently in lower-income countries than higher-income ones, reflecting varying patient needs.

This is the first bibliometric mapping study of SDGs in OFC care. The frequency of mentions of different SDGs varied by country income groups, suggesting different priorities and challenges to consider across global OFC research as we seek to achieve the SDGs by 2030.