Identifying global research gaps to mitigate antimicrobial resistance: A scoping review

Objective: Identify research gaps relevant to the global effort to combat antimicrobial resistance.

Methods: Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and Ovid MEDLINE were searched for reviews on antimicrobial resistance published between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019. Recommendations for future research were identified.

Findings: Seventy-four reviews met inclusion criteria; 300 research gaps and recommendations were identified. The largest number were from the human health sector (105; 35%) followed by environmental health (72; 23%), animal health (66; 22%), food and feed (14; 5%), and plants and crops (8; 3%); 35 (12%) involved more than one sector. The largest number of gaps concerned surveillance of resistance (68; 23%), followed by study design or methodology (52; 17%), interventions (41; 14%), risk assessment and modeling (35; 12%), ecological (26; 9%) and biochemical (28; 9%) aspects of resistance, interface between reservoirs of resistant pathogens (24; 8%), and economic (15; 5%) and awareness- and behavior-related (11; 4%) aspects of antimicrobial resistance.

Conclusions: Important research gaps remain in our complete understanding of antimicrobial resistance, and more research is needed about its development, transmission, and impact across the interface of human, animal, and environmental reservoirs.