Trends and gaps in air quality and children's health: A biblio-metric analysis using scopus and VOSviewer

Air pollution remains a critical global health issue that affects children. This bibliometric study analyses trends, research gaps, and key contributors to the literature on air pollution’s impact on children’s health, utilizing data from 1,590 publications indexed in the Scopus database between 1956 and 2024. Hazing’s Publish or Perish and VOS viewer were used to analyse the data. Most studies on air quality focus on medicine (67.42%) and environmental science (41.32%). Key findings indicate that the United States leads in both publication volume and impact, contributing 467 papers and 27,252 total citations, with an h-index of 89. Researchers from institutions such as Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of Southern California are pivotal in advancing the discourse on how air pollution exacerbates conditions like asthma, bronchitis, and long-term cognitive impairments in children. Older foundational studies, particularly those published in the late 2000s, continue to be highly influential for their focus on neuroinflammation and cognitive deficits linked to air pollution. International collaboration is robust, with co- authorship networks between the United States, China, and several European countries. However, more interdisciplinary and longitudinal studies are needed to deepen our understanding of the mechanisms through which air pollution affects children’s health. This study provides insights for future research efforts, strengthens scientific understanding, and supports the development of more effective public health interventions to reduce the burden of air pollution on children worldwide.