West, Robert;
Michie, Susan;
(2023)
How many papers are published each week reporting on trials of interventions involving behavioural aspects of health?
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, Article U6VX2Z. 10.32388/u6vx2z.
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Abstract
Behavioural science as applied to human health and wellbeing is crucial for meeting the challenges facing humanity in the 21st century. Although only a small fraction of health-related research focuses on behaviour, it still represents a substantial body of evidence that is accumulating rapidly. The sheer number of publications presents a huge challenge for manual extraction of information from study reports for purposes of evidence synthesis. We assessed the extent of this challenge, focusing on estimating the number of published reports of effectiveness trials relating to behaviour, either as outcomes or as key determinants of health outcomes. We adopted a conservative search strategy using words and phrases relating to effectiveness or efficacy trials of interventions involving commonly researched health-related behaviours. We reviewed a sample of the papers identified using the search strategy to estimate the proportion that were in scope. Using the search strategy we found an estimated 6,793 papers published per year over the years 2018-2022 inclusive. Of these, 81% were estimated by manual inspection to be in scope, resulting in an estimated 5,502 per year or 106 papers per week. The true figure is likely to be higher because of behaviours that were not canvassed in the search and trials represent only a small fraction of papers seeking to describe and understand behavioural issues relating to health and wellbeing.
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