Objective To present the hot topic of researches on drought and health by analyzing related literatures published in PubMed database.

Methods Foreign literatures related to drought and health were searched from the PubMed database and analyzed. Keywords (MeSH) appearing over 12 times in a paper were selected as high-frequency keywords.The frequency of high-frequency keywords in the same literature was calculated to form a word co-occurrence matrix.Cluster analysis on the matrix was done by SPSS statistical software.The research focus on a topic in the field was obtained by analyzing various literatures.

Results A total of 1 067 papers related to drought and health were retrieved.There were 44 high-frequency keywords. The number of published literatures on drought and health has increased since 2000, and more research works were conducted in Australia. Three research focal points were obtained by clustering the 44 high-frequency keywords.

Conclusion Hot topics focusing on drought and health were the effect of drought on nutrition, influence on infectious diseases and the research related to drought and mental stress.