Research on health inequalities: A bibliometric analysis (1966–2014)

The objective of this study is to report on research production and publications on health inequalities through a bibliometric analysis covering publications from 1966 to 2014 and a content analysis of the 25 most-cited papers. A database of 49,294 references was compiled from the search engine Web of Science. The first article appears in 1966 and deals with equality and civil rights in the United States and the elimination of racial discrimination in access to medical care. By 2003, the term disparity has gained in prominence relative to the term inequality which was initially elected by the researchers. Marmot's 1991 article is one of the five papers with the largest number of citations and contributes to the central perspective of social determinants of health and the British influence on the international status of research on social inequalities of health. •Research on health inequalities grown exponentially in the last 30 years.•Terms inequity, inequality and disparity have been inconsistently used over time.•Most-cited papers studied socioeconomic factors and impacts on health inequities.•First reports studied relations of socioeconomic conditions and health outcomes.•Research grew toward theoretical models and proposes methodological approaches.