Zhao Yanqiao, Zhang Ziping, Guo Suimin, Feng Beibei, Zhao Xiaoyu, Wang Xueqiang, Wang Yuling
Department of Sport Rehabilitation, Shanghai University of Sport, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, The Sixth Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
J Pain Res. 2021 Apr 16;14:1007-1025. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S283732. eCollection 2021.
Given the rapid growth of the global aging population, pain has become an unneglectable concern amongst the elderly. The quantity of scientific research outputs on pain in the elderly has increased over time, but only a small number of studies have used bibliometric methods to analyze scientific research in this field. This paper aimed to analyze scientific research on pain in the elderly published from 2000 to 2019 in a systematic manner using bibliometric methods.
Articles on pain in the elderly published from 2000 to 2019 were retrieved from the Web of Science (WoS). Abstracts were coded on the basis of predetermined items (eg, type of article, topic, type of subjects, pain characteristics), and relevant information on the first author, citation scores, and article keywords were collected.
A total of 2105 articles were included in this study. Statistical analysis revealed that the publication of articles on pain in the elderly increased in frequency over time (P<0.001). Most of the publications were original articles. Amongst the countries identified, the United States published the largest number of papers on this topic. Pain characteristics (50.21%), pain intervention (35.68%), and pain assessment (9.69%) were the main topics of research on geriatric pain. Back pain (12.30%) appeared to be the most popular pain type described in the included papers.
This work provides researchers with an in-depth understanding of pain in the elderly by evaluating relevant publications in the past two decades. Researchers in this field are warranted to explore future directions on geriatric pain such as the transition from acute pain to chronic pain and the underlying mechanisms of pain in the elderly.
鉴于全球老年人口的迅速增长，疼痛已成为老年人中一个不可忽视的问题。随着时间的推移，关于老年人疼痛的科学研究产出数量有所增加，但只有少数研究使用文献计量学方法来分析该领域的科学研究。本文旨在运用文献计量学方法系统分析2000年至2019年发表的关于老年人疼痛的科学研究。
从科学网（WoS）检索2000年至2019年发表的关于老年人疼痛的文章。根据预先确定的项目（如文章类型、主题、受试者类型、疼痛特征）对摘要进行编码，并收集第一作者的相关信息、引用分数和文章关键词。
本研究共纳入2105篇文章。统计分析显示，关于老年人疼痛的文章发表频率随时间增加（P<0.001）。大多数出版物为原创文章。在所确定的国家中，美国发表的关于该主题的论文数量最多。疼痛特征（50.21%）、疼痛干预（35.68%）和疼痛评估（9.69%）是老年疼痛研究的主要主题。背痛（12.30%）似乎是所纳入论文中描述最普遍的疼痛类型。
这项工作通过评估过去二十年的相关出版物，为研究人员提供了对老年人疼痛的深入理解。该领域的研究人员有必要探索老年疼痛的未来方向，如从急性疼痛到慢性疼痛的转变以及老年人疼痛的潜在机制。
