Understanding the Reach and Impact of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Women’s Health Research, 2018–2023

Understanding the public health impact of women's health research is crucial for improving health outcomes and guiding future research priorities. Bibliometric analysis offers a unique suite of tools to identify opportunities to increase impact and measure the dissemination of women's health research. Using 2018-2021 mortality data from the National Vital Statistics System, we utilized age-adjusted death rates to identify conditions with the highest relative mortality risk for females versus males. Our analysis showed that breast cancer, Alzheimer's disease, infections of the kidney, and acute rheumatic fever and chronic rheumatic heart diseases were associated with the highest relative mortality risk for females. Using a systematic keyword search strategy, we identified 219 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)-authored publications published between 2018 and 2023 featuring these conditions in a database of CDC-authored publications. For relevant publications on each condition, we evaluated five bibliometric indicators measuring media attention, academic citations, and policy citations. Overall, CDC's publications on these conditions did not demonstrate a gap in media attention, academic citations, and policy citations compared with other agency publications, underscoring the agency's effectiveness in disseminating its research on these topics. Assessing bibliometric indicators for published research on conditions with disproportionate relative mortality risk for females can reveal potential gaps in research coverage, highlight research successes, and inform strategic decisions for disseminating women's health research.