IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v21y2024i7p818-d1420341.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping the Environmental Co-Benefits of Reducing Low-Value Care: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Author

Listed:
  • Gillian Parker

    (Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada)

  • Sarah Hunter

    (Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada)

  • Karen Born

    (Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada)

  • Fiona A. Miller

    (Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 3M6, Canada)

Abstract

Reducing low-value care (LVC) and improving healthcare’s climate readiness are critical factors for improving the sustainability of health systems. Care practices that have been deemed low or no-value generate carbon emissions, waste and pollution without improving patient or population health. There is nascent, but growing, research and evaluation to inform practice change focused on the environmental co-benefits of reducing LVC. The objective of this study was to develop foundational knowledge of this field through a scoping review and bibliometric analysis. We searched four databases, Medline, Embase, Scopus and CINAHL, and followed established scoping review and bibliometric analysis methodology to collect and analyze the data. A total of 145 publications met the inclusion criteria and were published between 2013 and July 2023, with over 80% published since 2020. Empirical studies comprised 21%, while commentary or opinions comprised 51% of publications. The majority focused on healthcare generally (27%), laboratory testing (14%), and medications (14%). Empirical publications covered a broad range of environmental issues with general and practice-specific ‘Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions’, ‘waste management’ and ‘resource use’ as most common topics. Reducing practice-specific ‘GHG emissions’ was the most commonly reported environmental outcome. The bibliometric analysis revealed nine international collaboration networks producing work on eight key healthcare areas. The nineteen ‘top’ authors were primarily from the US, Australia and Canada.

Suggested Citation

  • Gillian Parker & Sarah Hunter & Karen Born & Fiona A. Miller, 2024. "Mapping the Environmental Co-Benefits of Reducing Low-Value Care: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(7), pages 1-16, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:818-:d:1420341
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/818/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/818/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Donthu, Naveen & Kumar, Satish & Mukherjee, Debmalya & Pandey, Nitesh & Lim, Weng Marc, 2021. "How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: An overview and guidelines," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 285-296.
    2. Hassane Alami & Pascale Lehoux & Fiona A. Miller & Sara E. Shaw & Jean‐Paul Fortin, 2023. "An urgent call for the environmental sustainability of health systems: A ‘sextuple aim’ to care for patients, costs, providers, population equity and the planet," International Journal of Health Planning and Management, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 289-295, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Vasileios Gkouliaveras & Stavros Kalogiannidis & Dimitrios Kalfas & Stamatis Kontsas, 2025. "Effects of Climate Change on Health and Health Systems: A Systematic Review of Preparedness, Resilience, and Challenges," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 22(2), pages 1-27, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Katarzyna Woźniak-Jasinska & Wlodzimierz Lewoniewski, 2025. "Analyzing Labor Market Dynamics in Industry 4.0: An Economic and Sociological Bibliometric Study," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(1), pages 761-782.
    2. Jan Wiers & Didier Chabaud, 2022. "Bibliometric analysis of immigrant entrepreneurship research 2009–2019," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 12(1), pages 441-464, December.
    3. Ana Filipa Fonseca & Fabíola Polita & Lívia Madureira, 2024. "How Agroecological Transition Frameworks Are Reshaping Agroecology: A Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-15, November.
    4. Katherin Carrera-Silva & Olga Maritza Rodríguez Ulcuango & Paula Abdo-Peralta & Ángel Gerardo Castelo Salazar & Carmen Amelia Samaniego Erazo & Diego Haro Ávalos, 2024. "Beyond the Financial Horizon: A Critical Review of Social Responsibility in Latin American Credit Unions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-23, September.
    5. Yucheng Zhang & Zhiling Wang & Lin Xiao & Lijun Wang & Pei Huang, 2023. "Discovering the evolution of online reviews: A bibliometric review," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 33(1), pages 1-22, December.
    6. Shobhit Kakaria & Aline Simonetti & Enrique Bigne, 2024. "Interaction between extrinsic and intrinsic online review cues: perspectives from cue utilization theory," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 2469-2497, December.
    7. Tajana Čop & Mario Njavro, 2022. "Application of Discrete Choice Experiment in Agricultural Risk Management: A Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-17, August.
    8. Migliavacca, Milena & Goodell, John W. & Paltrinieri, Andrea, 2023. "A bibliometric review of portfolio diversification literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    9. Shuangqing Sheng & Wei Song & Hua Lian & Lei Ning, 2022. "Review of Urban Land Management Based on Bibliometrics," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-25, November.
    10. Gour Gobinda Goswami & Tahmid Labib, 2022. "Modeling COVID-19 Transmission Dynamics: A Bibliometric Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-19, October.
    11. Dzintra Atstāja & Kevin Wilclif Mukem, 2024. "Sustainable Supply Chain Management in the Oil and Gas Industry in Developing Countries as a Part of the Quadruple Helix Concept: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(5), pages 1-18, February.
    12. Charlie Karlsson & Björn Hammarsssfelt, 2025. "The growth and development of Nordic regional science research 1982–2022: bibliometric evidence from thirteen regional science journals," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 74(1), pages 1-36, March.
    13. Das, Kallol & Patel, Jayesh D. & Sharma, Anuj & Shukla, Yupal, 2023. "Creativity in marketing: Examining the intellectual structure using scientometric analysis and topic modeling," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).
    14. Majda Ćesić & Katarina Rogulj & Jelena Kilić Pamuković & Andrija Krtalić, 2024. "A Systematic Review on Fuzzy Decision Support Systems and Multi-Criteria Analysis in Urban Heat Island Management," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(9), pages 1-42, April.
    15. Ying Liang & Wei Song, 2022. "Ecological and Environmental Effects of Land Use and Cover Changes on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: A Bibliometric Review," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, November.
    16. Luiz Almeida & Ana Soares & Pedro Moura, 2023. "A Systematic Review of Optimization Approaches for the Integration of Electric Vehicles in Public Buildings," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-26, June.
    17. Lanzalonga Federico & Chmet Federico & Petrolo Basilio & Brescia Valerio, 2023. "Exploring Diversity Management to Avoid Social Washing and Pinkwashing: Using Bibliometric Analysis to Shape Future Research Directions," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 41-65, March.
    18. Mansoureh Beheshti Nejad & Seyed Mahmoud Zanjirchi & Seyed Mojtaba Hosseini Bamakan & Negar Jalilian, 2024. "Blockchain Adoption in Operations Management: A Systematic Literature Review of 14 Years of Research," Annals of Data Science, Springer, vol. 11(4), pages 1361-1389, August.
    19. Satish Kumar & Filomena Maggino & Raj V. Mahto & Riya Sureka & Leonardo Salvatore Alaimo & Weng Marc Lim, 2022. "Social Indicators Research: A Retrospective Using Bibliometric Analysis," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 413-448, July.
    20. Francisco Díez-Martín & Giorgia Miotto & Cristina Del-Castillo-Feito, 2024. "The intellectual structure of gender equality research in the business economics literature," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1649-1680, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:818-:d:1420341. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.