A bibliometric and visualized analysis of research on air pollution and cardiovascular diseases

Abstract A large number of studies have shown that air pollution has a great impact on cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, there are few bibliometric studies or visual analyses in this field. The objective of this study was to research trends and hotspots of air pollution and CVD. We used CiteSpace and VOSviewer software to retrieve relevant studies from the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) over the past decade. Amount to 4284 documents on air pollution and CVD were included in this study. The past decade saw an upward trend in the number of studies. The analysis of national publications showed that the United States had the highest academic contribution in this field. Peking University, the University of Washington and Harvard University were the main institutions studying the effect of air pollution on CVD. The cooperation among institutions with high publications was very close. Cluster analysis of the keywords listed four categories as follow: (1) oxidative stress and the cardiovascular effects of air pollution; (2) the cardiovascular effects of pollution exposure sources; (3) the relationship between environmental stressors and CVD; (4) personal-level interventions. This study puts forward a comprehensive summary of the trends and development of air pollution and CVD, confirms the research frontier and hotspot direction and could give a meaningful reference for researchers in this field.