Introduction
Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms provide some insight prior to reading the literature itself. This study aims to track MeSH terms in effort to reveal themes in health research and medical practice.
Methods
MeSH terms from 32,489 articles, published from 2010-2015, listed in 15 of the top 20 U.S surgical journals based on impact factor were extracted from Medline. Extracted terms were tallied and collapsed by common headings. The total occurrences per word per year were averaged and the change in frequency was calculated. A word cloud of the top 100 MeSH terms by frequency was created. Excluding common headings such as human, the top 10 terms were compiled and analyzed with the Cochran-Armitage test for trend.
Results
MeSH terms in blue indicate an average increase in trend, while red terms decrease. The term with the least change in occurrence was “Recovery of Function”, which increased an average of 0.18%. “Multivariate Analysis” displayed the highest change in occurrence with an increase of 56%. With the exception of “Young Adult” and “Prospective Studies”, all of the top 10 MeSH terms exhibited a positive linear trend over time with P<0.001. “Aged”, “Retrospective Studies”, “Time Factors”, “Risk Factors”, “Follow-Up Studies”, “Postoperative Complications”, and “Prognosis” showed an increase in trend, while “Treatment Outcome” exhibited a decrease.
Conclusion
Understanding trending MeSH terms provides insight into current medical questions. Similar to social media, an algorithm that monitors the fluctuating terms would be a great resource for surgeons to stay abreast of current themes in surgery.
