title: Epidemiologic research topics in Germany: a keyword network analysis of 2014 DGEpi conference presentations.
abstract: Knowledge of epidemiologic research topics as well as trends is useful for scientific societies, researchers and funding agencies. In recent years researchers recognized the usefulness of keyword network analysis for visualizing and analyzing scientific research topics. Therefore, we applied keyword network analysis to present an overview of current epidemiologic research topics in Germany. Accepted submissions to the 9th annual congress of the German Society for Epidemiology (DGEpi) in 2014 were used as data source. Submitters had to choose one of 19 subject areas, and were ask to provide a title, structured abstract, names of authors along with their affiliations, and a list of freely selectable keywords. Keywords had been provided for 262 (82 %) submissions, 1030 keywords in total. Overall the most common keywords were: "migration" (18 times), "prevention" (15 times), followed by "children", "cohort study", "physical activity", and "secondary data analysis" (11 times each). Some keywords showed a certain concentration under one specific subject area, e.g. "migration" with 8 of 18 in social epidemiology or "breast cancer" with 4 of 7 in cancer epidemiology. While others like "physical activity" were equally distributed over multiple subject areas (cardiovascular & metabolic diseases, ageing, methods, paediatrics, prevention & health service research). This keyword network analysis demonstrated the high diversity of epidemiologic research topics with a large number of distinct keywords as presented at the annual conference of the DGEpi.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, 89081, Ulm, Germany. raphael.peter@uni-ulm.de.
authors.forename: Raphael Simon
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Peter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Torben
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Brehme
authors.affiliation: Institute for Community Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.|German Centre for Cardiovascular Research DZHK, Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.|German Centre for Diabetes Research DZD, Partner Site Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Henry
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Völzke
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Rainer
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Muche
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Dietrich
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rothenbacher
authors.affiliation: Institute of Epidemiology and Medical Biometry, Ulm University, Helmholtzstr. 22, 89081, Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Gisela
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Büchele
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D016021:Epidemiologic Studies; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male
keywords: Epidemiology; Germany; Keyword network analysis; Research topics