Scientific production on indoor air quality of environments used for physical exercise and sports practice: Bibliometric analysis

Highlights

• The first publication about the air quality occurred in 1975.

• An increase in publications was observed in the last 15 years.

• Most of the studies were performed by researchers in the USA, Portugal and Italy.

• 81% of studies published in the last decade had funding.

• Most of journals were in the area of Environmental Sciences.

Abstract

Introduction

In order to minimize adverse health effects and increase the benefits of physical activity, it is important to systematize indoor air quality study in environments used for physical exercise and sports.

Objectives

To investigate and analyze the scientific production related to indoor air quality of environments used for physical exercise and sports practice through a bibliometric analysis.

Methods

The databases Scielo, Science Direct, Scopus, Lilacs, Medline via Pubmed, and SportDiscus were searched from their inception to March 2016.

Bibliometric analysis was performed for authors, institutions, countries, and collaborative networks, in relation to publication year, theme, citation network, funding agency, and analysis of titles and keywords of publications. Country, area, and impact factor of the journals were analyzed.

Results

Of 1281 studies screened, 34 satisfied the inclusion criteria. The first publication occurred in 1975. An increase in publications was observed in the last 15 years. Most of the studies were performed by researchers in the USA, followed by Portugal and Italy. Seventeen different scientific journals have published studies on the subject, and most are in the area of Environmental Sciences. It was noted that the categories of author keywords associated with “Pollutants,” “Sport Environment,” and “Physical Exercise” were the most commonly used in most studies. A total of 68% of the studies had at least one funding agency, and 81% of studies published in the last decade had funding.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate that there is recent exponential growth, driven in the last decade by researchers in environmental science from European institutions.

Introduction

Physical exercise is important for maintaining good health, and the choice of practice environment has proven relevant, since the consequences of environmental pollution can affect the health of practitioners (Branis et al., 2009). Sports facilities have unique features according to the nature of exercise, energy consumption, and pattern of use (Revel and Arnesano, 2014).

Indoor air quality is determined by a combination of various pollutants from various sources, and is influenced by construction materials, building maintenance and ventilation type, and the type of activity performed and occupation by humans (Ramos et al., 2014). Studies indicate a relationship between human occupation and higher concentration of pollutants such as carbon dioxide (CO₂) and particulate matter (PM) (Buonanno et al., 2013, Ferro et al., 2004).

Literature evidence suggests that people exercising in polluted environments may be putting their health at risk (Ramos et al., 2014). During exercise, air tends to be inhaled through the mouth, not the nasal filtering mechanism. The increase in air flow velocity results in the transport of pollutants into the deepest part of the respiratory system (Carlisle and Sharp, 2001).

A growing number of studies analyzing indoor air quality in environments such as hospitals and nursing homes (Almeida-Silva et al., 2014, El-Sharkawy and Noweir, 2014), schools (Buonanno et al., 2013, Diapouli et al., 2008, Fuoco et al., 2015), kitchens (Buonanno et al., 2009) and offices (Zuraimi et al., 2006) have been performed. Indoor environments used for physical exercise and sports practice are important places to study air quality, as they contribute to the increase in total daily time people spend indoors, which reaches 95% of the day (Castro et al., 2015, Godoi et al., 2009).

Recently, researchers have systematically studied the association between air pollution and diseases such as diabetes (Eze et al., 2015), tuberculosis (Jafta, 2015), stroke (Shah et al., 2015), heart disease (Teng et al., 2014, Hu et al., 2014) and decline in cognitive function (Peters et al., 2015). The aim is to minimize the adverse health effects on exercise practitioners, but also to potentiate the physical activity benefits. The importance of systematizing indoor air quality study in environments used for physical exercise and sports practice is apparent, since relevant studies were not identified in a systematic literature review analyzing air quality in these environments.

Bibliometric analyzes are important tools to evaluate and quantify the growth of literature for a particular subject. Recently, the bibliometric method has been used in different contexts to investigate data showing increases in the number of publications, and identification of the main authors, research institutions, and countries investigating a topic (Bramness et al., 2013).

However, Hu et al. (2014) concluded that the literature is limited to presenting specific bibliometric analyses of journals or only a specific topic, to establish research trends or future directions. More information about institutions, authors and collaborators, author keyword, citation network, length, funding and journals should be introduced into the research trend study (Xie et al., 2008, Li et al., 2009).

To the best of our knowledge, there has been no previous bibliometric analysis of the scientific production in Environmental Science related to physical exercise and sports practice.

Therefore, this study aims to investigate and analyze the scientific production related to indoor air quality of environments used for physical exercise and sports practice through a bibliometric analysis. To accomplish this, we performed an in-depth analysis of publications, authors, and journals.