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Review
. 2019 Jun 12;16(12):2077.
doi: 10.3390/ijerph16122077.

Global Long-Term Care Research: A Scientometric Review

Liping Fu  1   2 , Zhaohui Sun  3   4 , Lanping He  5   6 , Feng Liu  7   8 , Xiaoli Jing  9
Affiliations
Review

Global Long-Term Care Research: A Scientometric Review

Liping Fu et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. .

Abstract

Since the early 1960s, long-term care (LTC) has attracted a broad range of attention from public health practitioners and researchers worldwide and produced a large volume of literature. We conducted a comprehensive scientometric review based on 14,019 LTC articles retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection database from 1963 to 2018, to explore the status and trends of global LTC research. Using CiteSpace software, we conducted collaboration analysis, document co-citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. The results showed a rapid increase in annual LTC publications, while the annual citation counts exhibited an inverted U-shaped relationship with years. The most productive LTC research institutions and authors are located primarily in North American and European countries. A simultaneous analysis of both references and keywords revealed that common LTC hot topics include dementia care, quality of care, prevalence and risk factors, mortality, and randomized controlled trial. In addition, LTC research trends have shifted from the demand side to the supply side, and from basic studies to practical applications. The new research frontiers are frailty in elderly people and dementia care. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the current state, popular themes, trends, and future directions of LTC research worldwide.

Keywords: CiteSpace; long-term care; scientometric review; visualization.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Year-wise distribution of publications and citations from 1963 to 2018.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of collaboration network of contributors. (a) All countries/regions, (b) USA, (c) Canada, (d) England, (e) Denmark.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Comparison of collaboration network of contributors. (a) All countries/regions, (b) USA, (c) Canada, (d) England, (e) Denmark.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Collaboration network of institutions. (a) All institutions, (b) Top 15 most productive institutions.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Collaboration network of authors. (a) All authors, (b) Mor, (c) Zimmerman, (d) Ribbe and Grabowski.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Document co-citation network in LTC research.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Timeline of the 10 largest clusters and 16 burst references.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Network of co-occurring keywords.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Timeline of the 17 burst keywords and 41 new keywords.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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