The research publications of members of European national noncommunicable disease health advisory committees

This paper describes a new indicator of research impact or influence, namely the research experience of health advisory committee members in 21 European countries, and how this relates to the burden of disease in those countries. Attention is confined to five noncommunicable diseases (NCDs): Cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, mental disorders, and chronic respiratory diseases, and the 5 years 2009–2013. In 2010, these five disease groups accounted for 57% of the disease burden in Europe as measured by Disability‑Adjusted Life Years. The file of advisers’ research papers contained 12,854 biomedical articles and reviews in the Web of Science, of which 5713 were concerned with one or more of the five NCDs. This output was compared with the relative disease burden in the countries concerned, and with the burden from different manifestations of these diseases such as cancer sites and alcoholism and dementia among mental disorders. such as alcoholism and dementia. The extent of other European countries’ contributions to the advisers’ research portfolios was also determined; it was higher than expected.