Microbiome Research in GCC Countries: A Systematic Review of 110 Studies

Gulf Cooperation Council countries are the focus of this systematic review characterizing 110 microbiome studies published up to January 31, 2025. The dataset, authored by Marwh G. Aldriwesh, synthesizes research distribution, methodologies, and thematic focus across human, animal, and environmental microbiomes. It was last updated on May 29, 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze regional research output and gaps based on the distribution of 110 studies across six GCC countries.
• Compare methodological approaches based on the reported prevalence of observational designs and 16S rRNA sequencing.
• Identify thematic priorities for future funding based on the described focus on human gut/oral microbiomes and metabolic disorders.
• Assess integration of One Health principles based on the reported lack of studies simultaneously investigating human, animal, and environmental microbiomes.

Strengths

• Systematic methodology following PRISMA 2020 guidelines for identifying 110 relevant studies.
• Clear breakdown of study composition: 49% human, 40% environmental, and 11% animal microbiome research.
• Specific geographic attribution, with Saudi Arabia contributing 44% of the identified publications.

Limitations

• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The 155.5 KB file size suggests a limited, summary-level dataset rather than raw study data.

Provenance

Source

figshare

Collection Method

Systematic review of PubMed, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, and EBSCO databases.

Time Range

Studies published up to January 31, 2025.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-05-29 05:35:28; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Gulf Cooperation Council countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain).