What's Trending in Infection Control? Scoping and Narrative Reviews

Abstract

Objective. To explore the trends in infection control peer-reviewed journals, mainstream media, and blogs written by infection control professionals Design. Narrative and scoping reviews methods. Narrative and scoping reviews were performed to identify trending infection prevention and control topics from international journals, national news websites, newspapers, and so-called grey literature throughout 2015. Data were analysed using word frequencies and results are displayed in word clouds. Results. For 2015, our search identified 6 news websites with a total of published 116 articles, 71 articles from selected newspapers, and 214 publications from infection control websites. In total, 1,059 journal articles were initially identified; 98 articles were anonymous and thus were excluded, leaving 961 articles in the reviews. The terms ‘superbug’ and ‘antibiotics’ were most commonly used in titles of news websites and newspapers, whereas the terms ‘infection’ and ‘prevention’ were most commonly used in infection control websites or blogs. The word frequency differences among the 4 selected journals reflected their respective specialties. Conclusion. In infection prevention and control, the integration of a range of mediums is necessary to best serve public interests. Whether the aim is advocacy, general health information dissemination, or warnings of imminent risk, health researchers have access to multiple forums with different strengths through which to influence public risk perceptions and responses.