Background: New knowledge from research studies is important as a foundation for high quality care in practice as well as crucial to further stimulate research in the future.
Aim: To determine the total number of peer-reviewed articles on diabetes research reported by nurses in four Nordic countries (Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) from 1979 to 2009. Furthermore we wanted to identify the time periods in which they had been published, different study designs and number of publications related to nurse authors.
Methods: We performed an electronic search for potentially relevant scientific articles between January 1, 1979 and December 31, 2009 using the MEDLINE, Medline in process, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Cochrane databases. The studies focused either on the diabetes population or diabetes health care professionals.
Results: We included 164 scientific articles; 132 resulting from electronic search and 32 from manual search. They were published in 63 different scientific journals, with 52 (32%) published in nursing journals and typically by authors with university degrees. Only one of four authors had published five or more articles. The majority of the studies originated from a single country, with 23 (14%) including co-authors from another country.
Conclusion: Research in diabetes reported by nurses has increased considerably after year 2000. Further action is needed to build stronger national network groups of researchers in diabetes nursing that would benefit from international collaborative research networks and facilitate funding opportunities.