Health Economic Evaluation in Iran (1998-2017), a Bibliometrics Analysis

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Economic evaluation is an important tool for health policy and optimal resource allocation. The aim of this study was to present an overview and bibliometric analysis of health economic evaluation articles in Iran during the years1998-2017. Material and methods: A methodical analysis was conducted for classifying English and Persian studies using ProQuest, Google Scholar, PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, International Pharmaceutical Abstract and Persian databases including MagIran, Elm net and SID. The retrieved articles were categorized by research topics, type of intervention, type of economic evaluation, and year of publication. Impact Factor of the journals, citation analysis of the first authors, most cited topics and average citations per item were analyzed. Results: 474 articles were retrieved from all search engines after excluding irrelevant papers, 134 articles were included in the review.70 percent of Iran's economic evaluation studies have been conducted over the past six years. Cost-effectiveness analysis was the most used method with 78%; Therapeutic interventions including medicines, vaccines, and medical equipment with 51.5 percent were the most frequent interventions. The first topic of the studies was cancer and neoplasm with 17.2 percent, the pattern of 3-5 writers and 6-10 pages was the most used. The medical universities of Tehran, Iran, and Shiraz provided the most articles. Among the writers, Nikfar had the most contributions with 6 articles. The citation rate for Iran's economic evaluation studies was 59 percent. The average citation for each article was 4.5, and 90 percent of the articles were printed in English. The" Value in Health" had the highest share in publish, and 53% of articles were published in foreign magazines. Discussion: There has been a growing trend, over the recent years in Iranian health economic evaluation articles, but most studies have been supported by academic and research centers and not by national healthcare decision and policy-makers. To increase their participation, some activities such as improving the quality of design, implement, and report of health economic evaluation studies, using the participation of leading researchers and universities in this field, adjusting with the priorities of decision-making centers, and updating guidelines are needed.