Research on the health of and interventions for family caregivers of people with dementia: a bibliometric analysis of research output during 1988–2018

Abstract

Background: Dementia is a large and growing health problem, and since the majority of dementia patients live at home, caring responsibilities generally fall to family members. Caregivers are often inadequately supported by formal health services and have poorer psychological and physical health. Our study aimed to compare the contributions of publications from different countries, institutions and authors and present a bibliometric analysis to determine the future hotspots and trends in research on the health of and interventions for family dementia caregivers. Methods: Studies published during 1988-2018 were extracted from the Science Citation Index Expanded of the Web of Science. Each publication was evaluated to obtain the basic information. Bibliometric analysis was used to evaluate the number or cooperation networks of publications, countries, institutions, journals, citations, authors, references, and keywords. The resulting articles were analyzed descriptively, and data were produced for VOSviewer. Results: Five hundred forty-two articles were identified.The annual number of relevant publications has increased steadily since approximately 2006. The USA has the highest number of publications (36.2%), followed by the UK (12.9%). China entered late, but research there has developed rapidly. The most productive institution, journal, and author in this field are University College London, the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and Orrell M from the UK, respectively. A co-occurrence analysis of keywords reveals a mainstream research focus on burden, depression, quality of life, and corresponding interventions for dementia patient caregivers. The keywords “psychosocial intervention”, “long-term”, “e-learning/online”, “communication”, and “qualitative research” reflect the latest hotspots, appearing in approximately 2017-2018. Conclusion: Our study details the performance statistics of and the main topics and trends in the research on the health of and interventions for dementia caregivers from 1988 to 2018 and provides a comprehensive analysis.

Bibliometric Analysis on Geriatric Nursing Research in Web of Science (1900–2020)

“…This was not unusual because the U.S. is the most active country in the study of geriatric nursing, and U.S. researchers rank first when it comes to scientific production in medicine, health, and nursing [30,32,33]. Additionally, it was revealed that the large scientific community, big research budget, higher national self-citation, desire to publish in national journals, and developed country are also contributing factors in the USA being a pioneer in this field [34,35]. In the USA, the population age sixty-five years and over is estimated to nearly double over the next three decades, from 48 million to 88 million by 2050, and the need for more research in this field is felt.…”

Thematic research clusters in very old populations (≥ 80 years): a bibliometric approach

“…More recently, Shi et al [ 25 ] studied research on family caregivers of people with dementia, highlighting that the increased prevalence of dementia in very old people and their lengthening life expectancy can increase the risk of diverse health problems in family members, including depression, stress, anxiety, and other physical or psychological disorders. Caregivers have even been called “silent patients” or “secondary patients” whose needs should be addressed through specific strategies to protect and provide them with the required support; such strategies show unequal development across different countries [ 16 ].…”

Global trends of researches on pycho-oncology during 1999-2019: A 21-year bibliometric study based on VOSviewer

“…There are indeed other database for bibliometric analysis, such as Pubmed and Scopus. However, to the best of our knowledge, Thomson Reuters' WOS is the most appropriate database for performing bibliometric analysis [37]. Second, some important studies related to research area of psycho-oncology in non-English language were not included and analyzed.…”

“…Second, some important studies related to research area of psycho-oncology in non-English language were not included and analyzed. Third, there were differences between the bibliometric analysis results and the real research situations, since some latest published high-quality studies were not focused on because of their low citation frequency [37]. Therefore, it may be necessary to update the bibliometric analysis in the future.…”