Page 9 - IJPS-11-1

International Journal of
Population Studies Exercise and frailty in older adults

for exercise and frailty research. The timespan covered over the past decade highlights the rising research interest
extends from 1987 to 2024, encompassing sources from in exercise interventions for frailty.
231 different peer-reviewed journals, books, and other
publications. On average, the documents were published 3.3. Main research themes and hotspots
7.91 years ago and have received 40.67 citations each. A keyword co-occurrence analysis was conducted on 765
In terms of document contents, 1,276 author keywords keywords extracted from the dataset to identify major
(Keywords Plus ID) and 770 author keywords (DE) were research themes and hotspots in exercise interventions
identified. The 447 documents were produced by a total of for frailty. After setting a threshold of a minimum of
2,352 unique authors, with 2,364 documents attributed to five keyword occurrences, 47 keywords met the criteria
single authorship by 13 different authors. for cluster analysis. Five distinct clusters emerged,
Regarding author collaboration, the average number of representing broad categories of research focus over the
co-authors per document was 10.8. However, only 3.8% of past two decades. Each cluster contained keywords with
the papers involved international co-authorship between strong co-occurrence, reflecting a thematic area of inquiry
researchers from different countries. The most common in the literature on frailty and exercise. Figures 3 and 4
document type was journal articles (371), followed by illustrate the mapping.
reviews (64). Other document types included conference 3.3.1. Aging cluster (red)
papers, proceedings papers, book chapters, and retracted
publications. Only 14 (3.1%) of the 447 documents were The aging cluster identified in the bibliometric analysis of
single-authored. exercise interventions for frailty underscores the depth and
scope of the research dedicated to understanding frailty in
In summary, Table 1 provides an overview of the dataset the aging population. It reveals a concerted effort toward
dimensions, authorship trends, content, collaboration studying the epidemiology of frailty, with a focus on the
patterns, and document types included in this bibliometric prevalence, patterns, and causes of frailty among older
analysis of research on exercise and frailty over a 37 years adults (Bandeen-Roche et al., 2015; Wolf et al., 2006).
span. The data indicate a collaborative field with growing Research within this cluster is fundamental in grasping the
international participation in recent years. impact of frailty on public health and planning appropriate

3.2. Publication trends in research on exercise and health-care strategies. Another crucial aspect of the aging
frailty cluster is the focus on screening and assessment.
The publication output on exercise interventions for This research avenue involves the development
frailty, as sourced from the WoS and Scopus databases, is and validation of tools designed to effectively detect
shown in Figure 2. A total of 335 papers were published frailty (Pialoux et al., 2012; Vellas et al., 2013). Accurate
in WoS sources, compared to 112 from Scopus sources. assessment methods are critical in identifying individuals
Overall, publication trends indicate a growing research at risk of frailty or those who are pre-frail – individuals
interest in this field over the past four decades. Before who are not yet frail but show signs of vulnerability. Some
2000, fewer than 10 papers were published annually. researchers have argued that while tools such as slow gait
After 2010, the output exceeded 20 papers per year, speed, PRISMA 7, and timed get-up-and-go test show
indicating an uptick in research activity. The period from high sensitivity for identifying frailty in older adults,
2016 – 2021 demonstrated the highest productivity, with their limited specificity prevents them from being used as
publications per year peaking at 40 in WoS and 16 in accurate single tests (Clegg et al., 2014).
Scopus in 2021. Within this cluster, there is also an emphasis on
The WoS corpus demonstrates greater maturity, with characterizing the frailty spectrum. Acknowledging that
an average document age of 22.5 years, compared to frailty is not a binary state, research distinguishes between
7.5 years for Scopus. The average yearly output across both various levels of health in the elderly – from robust to pre-
databases is 13.4 papers. However, the average number frail to frail. This spectrum approach promotes a nuanced
of citations per document is higher for WoS (58) versus understanding of how frailty can develop and progress,
Scopus (19). This is reflected in the higher h-index of 58 allowing for targeted interventions at each stage (Puts
for WoS compared to 19 for Scopus. In summation, while et al., 2017).
Scopus has indexed more recent papers in this field, the The examination of risk factors for frailty is another
WoS dataset contains older, more highly cited articles integral research theme within the cluster. Identifying
published over a longer time span of 37 years, compared to factors such as age-related physiological changes, diseases,
the 16 years covered by Scopus. The growth in publications lifestyle choices, and environmental influences can help in

Volume 11 Issue 1 (2025) 3 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.3282