Exploring Environmental Health Inequalities: A Scientometric Analysis of Global Research Trends (1970–2020)

Sida Zhuang, Gabriele Bolte and Tobia Lakes
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Sida Zhuang: Geoinformation Science Lab, Geography Department, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany
Gabriele Bolte: Department of Social Epidemiology, Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research, University of Bremen, 28359 Bremen, Germany
Tobia Lakes: Geoinformation Science Lab, Geography Department, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, 10099 Berlin, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 12, 1-25

Abstract: Environmental health inequalities (EHI), understood as differences in environmental health factors and in health outcomes caused by environmental conditions, are studied by a wide range of disciplines. This results in challenges to both synthesizing key knowledge domains of the field. This study aims to uncover the global research status and trends in EHI research, and to derive a conceptual framework for the underlying mechanisms of EHI. In total, 12,320 EHI publications were compiled from the Web of Science core collection from 1970 to 2020. Scientometric analysis was adopted to characterize the research activity, distribution, focus, and trends. Content analysis was conducted for the highlight work identified from network analysis. Keyword co-occurrence and cluster analysis were applied to identify the knowledge domain and develop the EHI framework. The results show that there has been a steady increase in numbers of EHI publications, active journals, and involved disciplines, countries, and institutions since the 2000s, with marked differences between countries in the number of published articles and active institutions. In the recent decade, environment-related disciplines have gained importance in addition to social and health sciences. This study proposes a framework to conceptualize the multi-facetted issues in EHI research referring to existing key concepts.

Keywords: environmental health inequalities; health disparities; environmental justice; scientometric analysis; research trends; framework; health determinants; indicators (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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