Research on safety in home care for older adults: A bibliometric analysis

AIM: This study aimed to describe and visualize the current research state and collaborative networks in home care safety for older adults over the past 11 years to analyse the gaps of research and future research trends. BACKGROUND: The amount of research on safety in home care for older adults is increasing. It is necessary to understand the status of development and main research topics and identify the main contributors and their relationships. METHODS: A total of 2,631 publications were retrieved from the Web of Science. The external characteristics of the publications were summarized with the Web of Science and Histcite. Collaborative networks and keywords were analysed and visually displayed using analysis tools. RESULTS: The number of articles increased over the years. Articles were identified from 79 countries, 3,630 institutions, 647 journals and 11,691 authors, and complex cooperative relations among them and five research topics were identified. CONCLUSION: Research on home care safety for older adults is developing steadily, and this field may be understood to a greater extent in the future. Countries, institutions and scholars need to cooperate more in this research field. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: This study contributes important information for understanding achievements in the research field of home care safety and provides insights into future research.