Global scientific research on social participation of older people from 2000 to 2019: A bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND: Social participation is an indicator of successful ageing and important determinant of health outcomes. As more studies have been conducted on social participation of older people, a comprehensive and quantitative analysis of the current literature will contribute to a better understanding of the main and novel issues and improve existing geriatric care services in this domain. However, limited bibliometric analysis was employed in this research field. Therefore, we conducted this study to investigate the research trend and quantitatively and comprehensively characterise the landscapes of publications on social participation of older people via bibliometric analysis methods. METHODS: Data were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection in January 2020. CiteSpace 5.5.R2 and VOSviewer software packages were used to generate knowledge maps and analyse the publication outputs, countries/regions, institutions, journals, research hot spots and research frontiers. RESULTS: A total of 7,029 publications between 2000 and 2019 were retrieved, and the publication number per year continues to increase. The United States held a leading position in this research field, and Duke University was the most productive institution. Co‐cited reference cluster analysis and keyword co‐occurrence analysis showed that research hot spots contained factors of healthy ageing, quality of life, psychological problems and health status, especially dementia, function (including cognitive function) and frailty. Burst detection of keywords revealed that social participation, social support, instrumental activity, frailty and loneliness have been new research frontiers since 2015. CONCLUSIONS: By analysing publications over the past 20 years, we found publication trends and characteristics in this field. These findings will hopefully provide new insight into the scientific landscapes and further directions in the study of social participation of older people. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Social participation is strongly associated with physical and psychological problems and the well‐being of older people. Related professionals, such as social workers, psychologists, nurses and many other health care practitioners, should raise widespread awareness and concern over research hot spots and frontiers on this topic to promote research knowledge translation and adoption into the practice of caring for older people.