The impact of COVID-19-related chronic disease is gradually emerging: discovery and trends from a bibliometric analysis

To conduct a literature survey of COVID-19-related chronic diseases to inform future research. Publications on COVID-19 and chronic disease were retrieved from PubMed using MeSH Major Topic, including the terms COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Chronic Disease and Noncommunicable Diseases. Bibliometric features, journals, research areas, countries, funding agencies and citation reports, were extracted from Web of Science and highly cited papers identified and summarized. Fisher's exact probability test was used to associate highly cited papers with countries. A total of 1034 English-language publications were included. Urology/nephrology was the most active research area (n=230), PLOS ONE the most frequently involved journal (n=29) and the United States of America (USA) had the greatest research output (n=223). A medium number of publications were in the areas of hematology and immunology and these papers had a high citation rate. No statistically significant difference was found in the ratio of highly cited papers: total papers across high-output countries (P=0.668). The USA, Europe and China were the sources of the most highly cited articles and productive funding agencies. The influence of COVID-19 on chronic disease has received considerable attention. Hematology and immunology may continue to be productive research fields. Much research remains to be done to characterize the emerging chronic effects of COVID-19 on human health.