Changes in research paradigms regarding women’s health issues: based on an analysis of the titles of papers collected by the Japan Medical Abstracts Society between 1980 and 2014

Abstract

Objective: The objective was to understand changes in research paradigms regarding women's health in Japan and to obtain insights for future study. Methods: The words “female,” “women,” and “mother” were used as keywords to search papers from 1980 through 2014 in the Japan Medical Abstracts Society database. Codes were developed to classify the results according to the words in the titles, and text mining was used to analyze the results. The codes were understood to represent paradigms for resolving women's health issues and were analyzed in 5-year increments. Results: In total, 29,082 papers were coded; 30.9％ of all papers were classified with the code “pregnant and nursing mothers.” Between 1990 and 1994, the ratio was 40.0％, and between 2005 and 2009, it was 24.2％. The most common field code was “perinatal.” Prior to 1994, the codes “infection,” “medication,” and “perinatal” were significantly more common, and, after 1995, “musculoskeletal” and “menstruation” were significantly more common. Since 2000, the codes “psychology,” “child-rearing,” “sleep,” and “fatigue” have continued to increase significantly（ P ＜ 0.05）. Discussion: Although the focus of research paradigms for women's health issues had been one of women as the child-bearing and child-rearing sex, this focus has declined. Between the 1990s and 2010s, the paradigm appears to have shifted towards a focus on the physical health and lifestyles of women with a broader variety of lifecycles, and, since 2010, it has shifted towards a focus on the difficulty of caregiving and child-rearing roles.