Abstract
Background:
The objective of this bibliometric inquiry was to scrutinize domains that delve into the repercussions of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on individuals afflicted with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), worldwide scholarly findings of interrelated research, and forthcoming trajectories.
Methods:
To conduct a literature analysis, use the web of science core collection database, search for ASD and COVID-19-related literature published Utilize CiteSpace and VosViewer to visually analyze documents and create networks of authors, organizations. The CiteSpace and VosViewer to visually analyze documents and create networks of authors, organizations, countries, and keywords.
Results:
This study collected 771 papers and shows an increasing trend in publications. The United States had the most relevant literature (281), followed by the United Kingdom (115) and Italy (76). The United States had the most relevant literature (281), followed by the United Kingdom (115) and Italy (76). The University of London had the most papers (53, 6.87%), and Happe_Francesca was the most productive researcher (6). J AUTISM DEV DISORD was the main journal for research on the impact of COVID-19 on ASD, with 22 related articles. Keyword co-occurrence analysis has revealed that “parenting stress,” “enhancing adherence,” “acute stress disorder,” “COVID-19 Italian lockdown,” “neurodevelopmental disorder,” and “occupational therapy” have garnered significant attention recently. Notably, the burst keywords suggest that “interventions,” “qualitative research,” “Disabilities Monitoring Network,” “neurodevelopmental disabilities,” “perceived stress,” and “barriers” are potential areas of investigation for future research.
Conclusion:
This bibliometric analysis delineates the fundamental structure for assessing the impact of COVID-19 on ASD by scrutinizing crucial indicators such as Our analysis reveals that COVID-19 impact on autism has garnered the interest of an Future research could explore the stress, anxiety, and strategies for individuals with ASD and their The use of telemedicine can be studied in depth, as a new idea for ASD diagnosis and intervention training, it is worthwhile. The use of telemedicine can be studied in depth, as a new idea for ASD diagnosis and intervention training, it is worth exploring, such as Disabilities Monitoring Network, etc.
Keywords: ASD, bibliometric analysis, CiteSpace, COVID-19, VOSviewer
1. Introduction
The autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex set of neurodevelopmental disorders. It usually develops in early childhood, and core clinical symptoms include impaired communication skills, inadequate social interaction, stereotypes, and repetitive behaviors. The diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fifth revision[1] classifies autism, Asperger syndrome, childhood disintegrative disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified as ASDs. According to the World Health Organization,[2] it is estimated that by 2022, approximately 1 in 100 children worldwide will have autism. Currently, the global prevalence of the disorder is increasing over time. In 2020, the centers for disease control and prevention released the most recent epidemiological study with data from 11 states, which showed that 1 in 44 children under 8 years of age were diagnosed with autism, a rate higher than the 30% estimated in 2010.[3] Studies in Asia,[4] Europe,[5] and Africa[6] have reported an average prevalence of 0.48% to 3.13% for individuals with ASD. Children with ASD incur long-term medical costs for society and their families. In the United States, a child with ASD spends more than $20,000 per year on treatment, health care, and education.[7] Autism has become one of the long-term concerns of clinical staff.
The 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic affected countries and populations worldwide. It is caused by a strain of coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).[8] Approximately 25% of children with autism have asymptomatic or symptomatic immunodeficiency or dysfunction, exposing them to higher infection, morbidity, and mortality associated with COVID-19.[9] Studies have shown that the effects of COVID-19 on the immune system make children with autism more susceptible to other infections and further progression of the disease.[10] In addition, because of the rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2, necessary measures are taken to protect the worldwide population by minimizing the transmission of the virus infection from person to person. The extensive interruption of medical follow-up and rehabilitation during the embargo limits the daily life and access to treatment for people with ASD, affecting the main areas affected by ASD (behavior, communication, socialization, and autonomy), and the embargo statistically severely affects sensory-motor development, cognitive skills, sleep, morale, behavior, and social interactions in approximately 50% of children with special needs.[11] In addition, there is evidence that maternal SARS-CoV-2 infection during pregnancy doubles the risk of autism in offspring.[12] In addition, SARS-CoV-2 can activate mast cells, which in turn lead to microglia activation. These changes release excessive inflammatory molecules, stop synaptic “pruning,” impair neuronal connections, and lower the fear threshold, disrupting the expression of emotions observed in children with autism.[13]
To the best of our knowledge, this represents the inaugural bibliometric examination of scholarly inquiries concerning the influence of COVID-19 on ASD. We have successfully addressed this research lacuna, utilizing CiteSpace and VosViewer to depict this area of study. This includes, but is not limited to: a comprehensive statistical analysis, encompassing a descriptive overview of the yearly publication quantity, growth patterns, countries of origin, institutions, authors, journals, cited authors, as well as the worldwide distribution of cited authors and cited journals; the examination of citations, encompassing the co-citation of journals; the study of co-occurrence, which includes the creation of a visual representation of commonly used keywords; the evaluation of burst keywords over time.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Data sources and retrieval strategies
Due to the authoritative nature of database citations, our search was conducted utilizing the web of science core collection (WOSCC) database as the primary data source. The subject heading utilized for this search was “TS = ([COVID-19] OR [SARS-CoV-2] OR [novel coronavirus disease] OR [SARS-CoV-2] OR [SARS Coronavirus 2] OR (2019 nCoV) OR [coronavirus disease 2019] OR [coronavirus disease 19] OR [2019 novel coronavirus] OR [coronavirus19] OR [2019-novel CoV] OR [COVID 2019] OR [coronavirus 2019] OR [nCoV-2019] OR [ncovid19] OR [2019-ncov] OR [Severe acuterespiratory syndrome coronavirus 2]) AND TS = ([autism] OR [ASD] OR [ASD]).” The search period was from January 2019 to June 2023. The literature search comprised a variety of sources including, but not limited to, journal papers, dissertations, and conference papers that were included in the database. The language of the search was limited to English, while no specific restrictions were imposed on other retrieval conditions.
2.2. Research methods
In order to conduct a thorough bibliometric analysis, the data and complete records of referenced literature were exported in a “plain text format” format with the naming convention “download_XXX.” Then, text format data, including titles, authors, abstracts, keywords, and literature sources, were exported from WoSCC and imported into VOSviewer and CiteSpace software for bibliometric and visualization analysis (Fig. 1).
Figure 1.
PRISMA flow diagram.
The visualization knowledge map mainly consists of nodes and links. Each node in the graph represents a corresponding country/region, institution, authors. The size of each node usually represents its frequency of occurrence or citation, and nodes of different colors between nodes, the links represent collaboration, co-occurrence, or co-citation relationships. The measure of a node importance in a network is known as the betweenness centrality, a critical indicator. By utilizing algorithm modules and visualizations, country/region, authors, institutions, and keywords interact with each other to analyze and summarize the evolution of research directions.
3. Results
This section may be divided by subheadings. It should provide a concise and precise description of the experimental results, their interpretation, as well as the experimental conclusions that can be drawn.
3.1. Bibliometric analysis by publication year
The time distribution of the relevant literature was taken as a time interval per year to make statistics on the included literature. From January 2019 to June 1, 2023, 810 related articles in this field have been publicly included in the WOSCC database. After excluding 39 irrelevant retrieval records, 74 countries/regions, 207 institutions, 215 journals, and 2561authors were involved. The included publication types are as follows: Article (658), Review Article (78), and Proceeding Paper (35). Articles and review articles accounted for 95% of the publications (Fig. 2A). The number of publications in related literature generally increases with time, and its annual growth trend fits the fitted curve y = −102.75x2 + 526.05x − 351.75 R² = 0.9972 (Fig. 2B). As of June 1, 2023, 106 articles were published in the year.
Figure 2.
(A) Type of publications. (B) The combination chart of the number of annual.
3.2. Country contributions
In this analysis, 74 countries contributed to research on Impact of COVID-19 on ASD (Fig. 3). The circles in the figure represent the number of published studies, and the lines represent collaborations between countries. The larger the circle, the more relevant research has been published, the closer the circle is to red, the more the total number of articles published by the country and other countries, and the thicker the line The larger the circle, the more relevant research has been published, the closer the circle is to red, the more the total number of articles published by the country and other countries, and the thicker the line, the closer the cooperation.
Figure 3.
Cooperation network country/region.
The United States has the most prominent nodes, followed by the ENGLAND and ITALY. The United States and the United Kingdom have the most connections, indicating the most active cooperation between the 2 countries (Fig. 3). Table 1 lists the top 5 countries that published relevant research. These 5 countries published 567 papers (73.5%). The United States published the most relevant studies (281 papers, 36.4%), but not the most central (centrality = 0.25). This may be because the United States is dominated by domestic inter-agency cooperation.
Table 1.
Top 5 countries in terms of publications and centrality.
| Ranking | Country/region | Documents | Centrality |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | USA | 281 | 0.25 |
| 2 | United Kingdom | 115 | 0.34 |
| 3 | Italy | 76 | 0.07 |
| 4 | China | 52 | 0.08 |
| 5 | Canada | 43 | 0.28 |
3.3. Metrology analysis of units and research cooperation institutions
The institutional co-occurrence map (Fig. 4A) shows that nearly 207 research institutions participated in the relevant research.
Figure 4.
Research institution map.
Table 2 lists the top 10 institutions with the number of published papers in related fields. It can be seen from Table 2 that the most prolific institution is University of London (53 papers), followed by King College London (32 papers) and University of California System (29 papers).
Table 2.
Top 10 institutions in terms of publications and citations.
| Ranking | Institution | Documents | Centrality | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | University of London | 53 | 0.26 | United Kingdom |
| 2 | King College London | 32 | 0.08 | United Kingdom |
| 3 | University of California System | 29 | 0.39 | USA |
| 4 | University College London | 29 | 0.03 | United Kingdom |
| 5 | RLUK- Research Libraries UK | 23 | 0.06 | United Kingdom |
| 6 | University of Toronto | 19 | 0.3 | Canada |
| 7 | N8 Research Partnership | 14 | 0.03 | United Kingdom |
| 8 | State University System of Florida | 14 | 0.09 | USA |
| 9 | Harvard University | 12 | 0.09 | USA |
| 10 | UCL Institute of Education | 12 | 0 | United Kingdom |
3.4. Journal analysis
A time-based analysis of journal productivity is shown in Figure 5, where the colored legend indicates the average year of all published papers in the journal, the red journals are involving Related areas research more recently, while the blue ones may have faded in this topic from view over the analysis period. It can be found that regular special education journals, including journal of intellectual disability research. It can be found that regular special education journals, including journal of intellectual disability research, behavior analysis in practice, journal of enabling technologies, brain sciences, have an earlier acceptance rate for this topic, so the average publication years are between 2020 and 2021.
Figure 5.
Average years of publication in high-production journals for research on the impact of 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on autism spectrum disorder.
In contrast, some ASD-related professional journals have recently begun to focus on the impact of COVID-19 on ASD, such as journal of autism and developmental disorders, autism in adulthood, autism & developmental language impairments.
Table 3 of the table for the top 10 high-production journals. A total of 771 articles were published in 215 journals. Among them, the most prolific and most cited Journal is J AUTISM DEV DISORD (76 articles, 2176 citations), followed by AUTISM (67, 875).
Table 3.
Top 10 journals in terms of publications.
| Ranking | Journal | Documents | Citations | Citations/paper |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | J AUTISM DEV DISORD | 76 | 1088 | 14.31 |
| 2 | AUTISM | 67 | 875 | 13.06 |
| 3 | RES AUTISM SPECT DIS | 47 | 457 | 9.72 |
| 4 | AUTISM RES | 44 | 399 | 9.07 |
| 5 | RES DEV DISABIL | 36 | 490 | 13.61 |
| 6 | PLOS ONE | 36 | 407 | 11.31 |
| 7 | INT J ENV RES PUB HE | 34 | 310 | 9.12 |
| 8 | PEDIATRICS | 34 | 436 | 12.82 |
| 9 | DIAGN STAT MAN MENT | 29 | 204 | 7.034 |
| 10 | BRAIN SCI | 28 | 302 | 10.79 |
3.5. Biometric analysis of author cooperation
A co-occurrence analysis of core authors and their collaborative networks in the literature pertaining to the impact of COVID-19 on ASD is presented in Figure 6.
Figure 6.
Author co-occurrence map.
Table 4 presents a compilation of the top 10 most productive authors. It is noteworthy that 50% of these authors hail from the United Kingdom. Notably, Happy, Francesca (9 papers, 127 citations) emerged as the most prolific author, trailed by Spain, Debbie (6, 81) and Asbury, Kathryn (5, 236), thus underscoring their paramount significance in advancing research in this domain. Nevertheless, it is pertinent to mention that the quantum of papers published by academics working in this area is relatively low (Table 4).
Table 4.
Top 10 authors.
| Ranking | Author | Documents | Citations | Citations/paper | Country |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Happe, Francesca | 9 | 127 | 14 | United Kingdom |
| 2 | Spain, Debbie | 6 | 81 | 14 | United Kingdom |
| 3 | Asbury, Kathryn | 5 | 236 | 47 | United Kingdom |
| 4 | Tang, Qing | 5 | 137 | 27 | USA |
| 5 | Toseeb, Umar | 5 | 236 | 47 | United Kingdom |
| 6 | Yarimkaya, Erkan | 5 | 81 | 16 | Turkey |
| 7 | Bhat, Anjana | 4 | 40 | 10 | USA |
| 8 | Crane, Laura | 4 | 25 | 6 | United Kingdom |
| 9 | Dukes, Daniel | 4 | 11 | 3 | Switzerland |
| 10 | James, Cristina | 4 | 10 | 3 | USA |
3.6. Analysis of co-cited references
A co-citation reference map was generated using CiteSpace 6.2.R2 (Fig. 7). There are 362 nodes and 641 links involved. From the macroscopic view of the map, the nodes are scattered, indicating that only a few authors work closely together and that other scientific collaborations among different scholars need to be strengthened to promote deeper development of the field.
Figure 7.
Reference diagrams for common references.
Table 5 summarizes the 5 most cited references. The top 3 commonly cited references are Colizzi M (2020) 10 (132 citations), Eshraghi AA11 (2020) (71 citations), Ameis SH12 (2020) (69 citations).
Table 5.
Top 5 most co-cited references.
| Rank | Co-cited references | Citations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colizzi M, 2020, BRAIN SCI, V10, P0, DOI 10.3390/brainsci10060341 | 132 |
| 2 | Eshraghi AA, 2020, LANCET PSYCHIAT, V7, P481, DOI 10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30197-8 | 71 |
| 3 | Ameis SH, 2020, MOL AUTISM, V11, P0, DOI 10.1186/s13229-020-00365-y | 69 |
| 4 | Asbury K, 2021, J AUTISM DEV DISORD, V51, P1772, DOI 10.1007/s10803-020-04577-2 | 68 |
| 5 | Narzisi A, 2020, BRAIN SCI, V10, P0, DOI 10.3390/brainsci10040207 | 61 |
3.7. Keyword analysis
The keyword co-occurrence graph was generated by CiteSpace 6.2.R2, as shown in Figure 8, involving 305 nodes and 1562 links. This study includes “parenting stress,” “enhancing adherence,” “acute stress disorder,” “covide-19 Italian lockdown,” “autistic spectrum disorder,” “neurodevelopmental disorder,” “occupational therapy,” and “COVID-19 pandemic” were clustered with 8 main keywords. Shown in the keyword clustering timeline graph (Fig. 9), research on the impact of Covid-19 on ASD patients has been on the rise since 2020.
Figure 8.
Keyword co-occurrence diagram.
Figure 9.
Keyword clustering time graph.
The co-occurrence and centrality of the top 5 keywords are summarized in Table 6. ASD (204) was the keyword with the highest frequency, followed by children (189), autism (118), mental health (100) and adolescents (72). The high centrality keyword indicates the hotspots and turning points in this field; the value range is 0~1, and ≥0.1 indicates high centrality. Keywords in the centrality ranking are students, outcm, adolescents, spectrum disorder, quality of life.
Table 6.
Top 5 keywords for co-occurrence and centrality.
| Ranking | Frequency | Keywords | Ranking | Centrality | Keywords |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 204 | Autism spectrum disorder | 1 | 0.12 | Students |
| 2 | 189 | Children | 2 | 0.09 | Outcm |
| 3 | 118 | Autism | 3 | 0.08 | Adolescents |
| 4 | 100 | Mental health | 4 | 0.06 | Spectrum disorder |
| 5 | 72 | Adolescents | 5 | 0.06 | Quality of life |
In order to further analyze the research hotspots in different periods in this field, the evolution process is studied through the timeline, and the emergence of keywords is analyzed. Using CiteSpace 6.2.R2 to draw the keyword map of the citation explosion can see the year of research on keywords. Finally, we visualized the top 25 most cited keywords (Fig. 10). The blue line represents the time interval, and the red line represents the period when the keywords burst out. The 5 most recent citation burst keywords occurred in 2021 and continued through 2023.
Figure 10.
Strongest-citation-bursts.
4. Discussion
Although the impact of COVID-19 on academia has been the focus of many recent articles, the specific impact of COVID-19 on patients with ASD has not been summarized. To our knowledge, this is the first study to review this area using VOSviewer and CiteSpace. This study analyzed articles published from January 2019 to June 2023 on the impact of COVID-19 on patients with ASD based on the WoSCC database. The visualization of the knowledge graph shows the country/institutional collaborations, authors, cited journals, and research hotspots in the field, revealing cutting-edge trends in the field.
The overall upward trend in annual publication volume of relevant research between 2019 and 2023, and the surge in literature in this area especially after 2021, is likely due to increased funding for research in this area as society becomes more aware of the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on individuals with ASD. For example, on December 22, 2020, the autism science foundation funded research on the mental health impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with ASD. On June 1, 2021 the Simons foundation autism research initiative created and disseminated a study addressing autism risk in the context of COVID-19 infection, among others.
In terms of regional distribution, most of the articles came from the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, China, and Canada, especially the Euro-American countries had the highest participation and closer collaboration (Fig. 3), such as the United States (centrality: 0.24), United Kingdom (centrality: 0.21), and Canada (centrality: 0.19). This suggests that Europe and the United States are among the world leaders in research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with autism. It is noteworthy that despite international collaborations, research in this area has been focused on developed or high-income countries and has not involved African countries. Recent studies have shown that the age-standardized prevalence of ASD in Africa is 1% (95% CI: 0.3–3.1) higher than the global average of 0.6% (95% CI: 0.4–1%).[14] However, there are few studies in this area in Africa. Government spending on health care may be an important factor. The United States has the highest health care spending in the world, and it makes sense that the country has the most publications. Four of the top 5 institutions in terms of number of papers belong to the UK, making the UK the largest contributor to the field.
A study of high-frequency publications and cited journals can help us understand the current state of research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on ASD. The publishers of the top 10 journals in terms of number of publications are concentrated in Europe and the United States, and although China is also a key country in the field, there are no publishers in Asia, highlighting the importance of developing influential international journals. The generally high impact factors of journals and cited journals in this research area indicate that the quality of articles published in this area is high and the papers published are of high academic value. The accepted articles mainly study the impact of COVID-19 on ASDs from hot issues such as brain structure, genes and psychology. Journal of autism and developmental disorders is the most published and most cited journal and is undoubtedly the core journal in this field.
The authors collaborative network map gives us an idea of the representative scholars in this field. The most published scholar is Happe Francesca, whose primary research interest is the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of individuals with ASD and associated educators.[15] His most recent publication seeks to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic and non-autistic adults.
Reading the high frequency co-cited literature helps to quickly understand what is important in this area.[16] The most frequently co-cited study is that of Colizzi M et al, which identified persistent COVID-19 emergencies as challenging for most individuals with ASD and their families, with increased difficulty in managing daily activities and more frequent or intense symptomatic behavioral problems in at least 1 in 3 children. Eshraghi AA et al[17] determined that individuals with ASD require more additional support. Ameis SH et al[18] advocated for the development and testing of early interventions (via caregivers) and additional telemedicine support for targeted interventions for children, adolescents, and adults with autism through remote clinical trials. This was the third most frequently cited study.
Keywords represent a high degree of generalization of an article, and high-frequency keywords are usually used to identify hot spots and frontiers in research fields. We summarized the high-frequency keywords, clustered these keywords, constructed a keyword clustering time line graph, and finally analyzed the keywords for emergence. We found that the keywords of research on the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on autism were mainly focused on “parenting stress,” “enhancing adherence,” “acute stress disorder,” “covid-19 Italian lockdown,” “autistic spectrum disorder,” “neurodevelopmental disorder,” “occupational therapy,” and “COVID-19 pandemic.” This is because patients with ASD often see changes in routines as a major challenge, and in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the requirement to maintain physical distance, and changes in school closures and occupational therapy (telemedicine) may have a dramatic impact on patients with neurodevelopmental disorders such as ASD. With clinical manifestations such as acute stress disorder and decreased adherence to treatment regimens. Nisticò et al[19] (2020) noted that individuals with high-functioning ASD were more likely to experience symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and post-traumatic stress disorder during the first 2 months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to healthy controls. Rodriguez’s[20] findings suggest that the mental health status of children with autism changed during crises such as this pandemic. Violence, sleep disturbances, irritability, screaming, and stereotypic behavior were the most common changes. In addition to the direct impact on the behavioral and physical health of individuals with ASD, the COVID-19 pandemic also posed several related challenges, such as parenting stress for parents behind individuals with ASD. Anna Gagat-Matuła[21] (2022) showed increased social barriers such as unemployment, increased marital conflict, and financial instability. These increasing behavioral challenges lead to parent-child interaction problems and family relationship stress. Several other papers in this study also showed increased parental anxiety and stress and the need for more support. It is worth noting, however, that while we have seen significant progress in the last 3 years in research on the effects of COVID-19 in children with autism, research related to the effects of COVID-19 on autism in adults still lags far behind that of children.
Keyword burst is an important tool for the evolution of academic research hotspots, and the keyword explosion in the last 2 years is mainly focused on “interventions” “qualitative research” “Disabilities Monitoring Network” “neurodevelopmental disabilities” “perceived stress” “barriers” Although these are 5 separate high-frequency keywords in our analysis, in the actual publications we found that these keywords often appear together. Interventions for ASD in the wake of the COVID-19 epidemic appear to be emerging as a new research hotspot. In addition, we found several recent clinical studies focused on stress, anxiety, and the development of strategies to enhance mental and emotional health in youth with neurodevelopmental disorders and their parents associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the use of telemedicine as a way to address the need for diagnostic clarification for young children at risk for ASD. Such as the Disabilities Monitoring Network. Based on our analysis and the aforementioned literature review, these 5 keywords have emerged as hot and cutting-edge issues reflecting the impact of COVID-19 on autism research.
5. Conclusions
This bibliometric study describes the basic framework for the impact of COVID-19 on ASDs by exploring key indicators (countries, institutions, journals, authors, and keywords). We found that the impact of COVID-19 on autism is attracting the attention of a growing number of researchers. Future research could explore the stress and anxiety associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in youth with ASD and their parents, and the development of strategies to enhance mental and emotional health. The use of telemedicine could be studied in depth as a way to address the need for diagnostic clarification for patients at risk for ASD. For example, Disabilities Monitoring Network, etc.
6. Insufficient
The subject indexing of the database needs to be better, for example, some documents in the search results only mention ASD and COVID-19. However, the full text is not related to the field of study, which means that only some of the documents included in However, the whole text has nothing to do with the research field, which means that only some of the documents included in this study fit the theme.
Since CiteSpace 6.2.R2 currently does not support checking and deducing documents, the same document may be included in the analysis as multiple targets, which will also have a slight impact on the final visual results.
Author contributions
Data curation: Lyu Kaifeng.
Funding acquisition: Jiang-shan Li.
Investigation: Lyu Kaifeng, Hu Meichao.
Methodology: Lyu Kaifeng.
Resources: Lyu Kaifeng.
Software: Lyu Kaifeng.
Supervision: Jiang-shan Li, Chen Min, Zhang Wei, Hu Meichao.
Validation: Jiang-shan Li, Chen Min, Zhang Wei, Hu Meichao.
Writing – original draft: Lyu Kaifeng.
Writing – review & editing: Chen Min, Zhang Wei.
Abbreviations:
- ASD
- autism spectrum disorder
- COVID-19
- 2019 coronavirus disease
- SARS-CoV-2
- severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
- WoScc
- web of science core collection
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
[1] 2019 Hunan Provincial Key Field R&D Plan (2019SK2081): Key Technology Research and Innovation System Construction for Early Intervention of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine in Autism Spectrum Disorders; [2] 2021 Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Postgraduate Innovation Fund (2021CX15): Based on the ERK1/2 signaling pathway, to explore the influence and mechanism of pressing the governor vessel on the autism behavior of young ASD model mice induced by VPA; [3] 2022 Hunan Provincial Traditional Chinese Medicine Scientific Research Project (D2022031): Clinical observation of 4 methods of invigorating spleen massage on children with autism spectrum disorder complicated with chronic diarrhea/constipation; [4] 2022 Changsha Science and Technology Plan Project (kh2201044): “Traditional Chinese Medicine + Social Services” model boosts research on the health of children with autism spectrum disorders; [5] 2022 Hunan Provincial Natural Science Foundation Project (2022JJ30434): Based on RNA-Seq technology to explore the effect and mechanism of massage on the behavior of ASD model mice induced by VPA. [6] 2022 Hunan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Postgraduate Innovative Project: Directly Introducing the Governor Vessel on the Behavior and Gut Microbiota of Autism Spectrum Disorder Model Mice 2022CX104.
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are publicly available.
How to cite this article: Lyu K, Li J-s, Chen M, Zhang W, Hu M. Effect of COVID-19 on autism spectrum disorders: A bibliometric analysis based on original articles. Medicine 2023;102:39(e35310).
Contributor Information
Kaifeng Lyu, Email: 1005198062@qq.com.
Min Chen, Email: 15636803200@sina.cn.
Wei Zhang, Email: zw19620125@163.com.
Meichao Hu, Email: drhumeichao@myyahoo.com.
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