Objectives: Therapeutic/clinical inertia is thought to be responsible for up to 80% of cardiovascular events. This study was conducted as a comprehensive scoping and bibliometric analysis of peer-reviewed scholarly documents reporting on factors associated with therapeutic/clinical inertia in caring for patients with hypertension. Additionally, this study identified the factors associated with therapeutic/clinical inertia in hypertension.
Study design: This study was a scoping and bibliometric analysis.
Methods: The databases MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, CINAHL/EBSCO, Cochrane, and Scopus were searched from inception to September 23, 2020, using relevant keywords. Documents reporting on factors associated with therapeutic/clinical inertia in caring for patients with hypertension were selected based on inclusion criteria. Bibliometric indicators and VOSviewer were used to analyze and map citation and keyword networks.
Results: Data were collected from 71 documents. Of those, 43 (60.6%) were original articles, 54 (76.1%) were published after 2010, and 41 (57.7%) originated from the United States. Mapping cooccurrence of terms identified 112 hot topics that were grouped into 4 clusters. A total of 41 factors associated with therapeutic/clinical inertia were identified from the documents selected. Of those, 23 (56.1%) were related to the physician, 12 (29.3%) were related to the patient, and 6 (14.6%) were related to the health care system.
Conclusions: This scoping and bibliometric study provides insights into the width and depth of scholarly peer-reviewed documents on factors associated with therapeutic/clinical inertia in caring for patients with hypertension. Findings of this study could be helpful in shaping future directions of research into therapeutic/clinical inertia in hypertension.