Lower-limb locomotor function studies using walking speed as an assessment indicator: A bibliometric review from 2014 to 2024

Abstract

Background: Walking speed is an important kinematic parameter for evaluating lower-limb locomotor function. Our review aims to identify the research trends and hotspots of walking speed in assessing mobility across various populations through bibliometric methods.

Methods: A total of 1656 articles on the topic of walking speed published between 2014 and 2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science core database. CiteSpace was used for bibliometric visualizations, analyzing key indicators, such as the number of annual publications and their citation frequency, institutions, research areas, co-cited references, keywords, and other indicators.

Results: The number of studies on walking speed has consistently increased in the past decade. The University of Delaware publishes the most articles (37 articles). Research areas indicate that walking speed has been widely used in orthopedics, neuroscience, and rehabilitation. Recent studies are closely associated with gait analysis, aging, and youth populations through co-cited reference analysis. Moreover, keyword results show that knee osteoarthritis, physical activity, and muscle strength are the primary research topics. Body function and sex differences have become the latest research hotspots.

Conclusion: Walking speed is widely used to evaluate the activity ability of people with movement disorders and their exercise rehabilitation effect, especially in older adults. We hope to provide an overview of walking speed research for researchers in geriatrics, rehabilitation medicine, and biomedical engineering, encouraging them to focus on analyzing the relationship between walking speed and the mechanism of musculoskeletal system movement in future studies.

Keywords: aging; knee osteoarthritis; lower-limb locomotor function; rehabilitation training; walking speed.

Figure 1.

Flowchart of document selection.

Figure 2.

Annual trends in publications and citations.

Figure 3.

Visualization network map of the cooperation relations among countries.

Figure 4.

Visualization network map of the cooperation relations among institutions.

Figure 5.

Visualization network map of funds.

Figure 6.

Visualization network map of research areas.

Figure 7.

Visualization network map of the cooperation relations among authors.

Figure 8.

Cluster analysis of co-cited references.

Figure 9.

Visualization network map of keywords.

Figure 10.

Cluster timeline diagram of the keywords.

Figure 11.

Top 20 keywords with the strongest citation bursts.