A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis of Published Literature on Osteoporosis Vertebral Compression Fracture

J Pain Res. 2022 Aug 18:15:2373-2392. doi: 10.2147/JPR.S375119. eCollection 2022.

Abstract

Background: With the aging population growth in the world, the prevalence of osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture (OVCF) is rapidly increasing and receiving widespread attention. Although there are numerous articles on the topic, the research status and hotspot analysis are unclear.

Objective: The goal of this study is to identify trends in the OVCF field and to analyze the most highly cited original articles published in the Web of Science Index on OVCF using bibliometric analysis.

Methods: All OVCF data were obtained from the Web of Science Core Collection, and the number of citations, institutions, journals, countries, and years of publication in this field were visually analyzed using VOSviewer, the bibliometrics online analysis platform, and Excel software. Simultaneously, the top 100 most cited articles were extracted and analyzed.

Results: A total of 756 publications were related to OVCF were included from 1900 to 2022. In recent years, the number of articles on OVCF significantly increased. They are mainly from 41 countries/regions and 202 journals, led by China and the United States. Among all countries, China had the most significant contribution on OVCF (n = 363), and it also was cited most often (n = 3337). The institution with the most articles was Soochow University (n = 40). Osteoporosis International was the journal with most studies and has published 50 on this field. The journal of Spine was cited most often (n = 1968). The most productive periods were from 2016 to 2020, which received 294 articles and 4868 citations. After the analysis, the "vertebroplasty" and "kyphoplasty" of OVCF have been the most common research hotspots.

Conclusion: This study represents an updated bibliometric analysis of OVCF. The aim is to identify current research hotspots and future trends to guide clinicians and researchers in this field.

Keywords: OVCF; VOSviewer; Web of Science; bibliometric analysis; osteoporotic vertebral compression fracture; research trends.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by grants from the Department of Health of Zhejiang Province (2020KY408 to Dr. Jun Zhang, 2022KY548 to Dr. Haiyu Shao, and 2022KY608 to Dr. Tingxiao Zhao), and the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (LQ19H160014 to Dr. Fabo Feng and LGD22H060004 to Dr. Jun Zhang).