Pharmacist care activities: a bibliometric analysis

Abstract

Aim: To characterise systematic reviews and meta-analyses on pharmacist care activities (PCAs) by means of bibliometric indicators. Data sources: The MEDLINE, EMBASE and LILACS databases were consulted. Study selection: Articles describing/evaluating PCAs in any setting (community, ambulatory or hospital) in which research design was a systematic review of the literature (SR) or a meta-analysis (MA) were included. Results: Of the 1180 publications retrieved from the search, 86 were included. The included papers were published between 1998 and 2014. SRs were the most frequent research design (84.9%). The most frequent settings were all-care settings (n = 20, 23.3%), followed by community settings (n = 19, 22.1%). The most common target population included all types of population groups together (n = 53; 59.3%). None of the SR/MAs had a high quality level. The bibliometric analysis showed that the SR/MAs were carried out by an average of four authors (range 1–13) and 62.8% (54/86) of the analysed SR/MAs were written only by pharmacists. The USA and the UK were the most frequent authors’ countries of origin. The 86 SR/MAs were published in 49 journals, and the average impact factor was 1.172 (range: 5.827–0.109). Conclusions: The results of this review evidenced the urgency of an agreement on a PCA classification aiming at equating results among different studies. It is necessary to establish the minimum quality criteria for conducting studies on PC. Finally, the results showed the need for further research on PC (i) using qualitative methods and (ii) studying the paediatric population.