Bibliometric Analysis of Exercise and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

Abstract

Background

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is the leading cause of death in the world. Pulmonary rehabilitation includes, but is not limited to, exercise training and education, which aim to improve the physical and psychological conditions of patients with chronic respiratory diseases through self-management interventions.

Objective

The aim of this study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of studies on exercise and COPD published from 2000 to 2021 using VOSviewer and CiteSpace.

Methods

All included literature was obtained from the Web of Science core collection. VOSviewer was used to analyze country or region, institution, major co-cited journals, and keywords. CiteSpace was used to analyze centrality, author and co-cited authors, journals, the strongest citation bursts of references, and keywords.

Results

A total of 1889 articles meeting the criteria were obtained. The United States has the largest number of publications. The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine is the most influential in this field, and the most published research institution is Queen’s University. Denis E. O’Donnell has made significant contributions to exercise and COPD research. Association, impact, and statement are hot spots of research in this field.

Conclusion

A bibliometric analysis of exercise interventions for COPD over the past 22 years provides direction for future research.

Keywords:

• bibliometrics
• visualization
• exercise
• COPD
• research hotspots

Research Ethics

All data used in this study were obtained from the Internet and no animal or human subjects were involved. Therefore, ethics committee approval is not required.

Acknowledgments

The authors show gratitude for Van Eck and Waltman, the inventor of the VOSviewer. The authors also would like to express their appreciation to Professor CM Chen, who invented CiteSpace, which is free to use.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by Grant No.201904010065 from the science and technology program of Guangzhou.