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Bibliometric Analysis: Insights for COVID-19 in Long-Term Care Research

By Lisa Kuhns, PhD

Valuable insights for researchers in the long-term care (LTC) domain, enabling them to explore new perspectives in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, were presented in a study published in Healthcare

“In this paper, we drew on bibliometric data relating to 1024 journal articles listed on the WoSCC database,” wrote Zhaohui Sun, Department of Law and Political Science, North China Electric Power University, Baoding, China, and coauthor. “Scientific output and citations of LTC research in the context of COVID-19 pandemic and the collaboration networks were visualized to examine the current status, development, and major contributors to the research.” 

During the COVID-19 pandemic, research on LTC has steadily progressed with fruitful results. The number of publications increased slowly in the first 6 months, followed by a significant boost in July. After that, it gradually decreased but showed an upward trend with some fluctuations. 

The major contributors in the field of LTC research during the pandemic have provided a wealth of significant results. However, there is a need for stronger international collaboration among them. The US, Canada, Italy, and England were the leading countries in LTC research publications. The University of Toronto was the most influential institution. Zimmerman and Gravenstein were the most productive authors. However, collaboration networks of major contributors showed weak cooperation, highlighting the need for extensive and close networks in the context of the pandemic. 

The current analysis of knowledge maps of references and keywords has revealed consistent results. COVID-19 pandemic-related LTC research has focused on impacts on facilities and residents, including physical and mental health, human rights, and loneliness.  

The evolution of LTC trends includes three stages:  

  • Prevention and control strategies; 
  • Epidemiological aspects; and 
  • COVID-19 virus, vaccine, and nursing homes 

 The pandemic has shifted focus from older adults needing LTC to those in LTC facilities and from general epidemics to significant public health emergencies. Management and strategy development are now prioritized to improve the quality of LTC and resident well-being. 

In conclusion, this paper offers valuable information to LTC researchers to identify new perspectives in the COVID-19 pandemic, including major countries/regions, institutions, researchers, hot topics, evolution trends, and new research frontiers. Academics, civil people, and LTC practitioners should strongly focus on this information. Moreover, this paper presents a new scientific visualization method for constructing concept networks on LTC, which can contribute to integrating LTC research in the pandemic. 

“For LTC practitioners, this study presented accurate information regarding the key authors and institutions best suited to assist in developing LTC systems to better manage the COVID-19 pandemic and any other future epidemics,” wrote the study authors. 

Reference 

Sun Z, Chai L, Ma R. Long-term care research in the context of COVID-19 pandemic: A bibliometric analysis. Healthcare. 2023; 11(9):1248. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11091248 

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