Trends of Low Back Pain Research in Older and Working-Age Adults from 1993 to 2023: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Although the number of publications focusing on low back pain in older adults (LBP-O) and working-age adults (LBP-W) has been growing for decades, comparative research trends in these two populations, which may help to guide future investigation, have not been rigorously explored. This analysis aimed to describe publication patterns and trends of research targeting LBP-O and LBP-W over the last three decades. Peer-reviewed LBP-O and LBP-W articles published between 1993 and 2023 were retrieved from the Web of Science, which provided the details of annual publication volume, and prominent journals/countries/institutions. The relationship between the annual publication volumes and years was analyzed by Spearman correlation analysis. The hot topics and emerging trends were analyzed by VOSviewer and CiteSpace, respectively. A total of 4217 LBP-O-related and 50,559 LBP-W-related documents were included. The annual publication volumes of LBP-O and LBP-W articles increased over the years (r=0.995 to 0.998, p<0.001). The United States had the highest number of prominent institutions publishing relevant articles. The most prolific journal for LBP-O (5.4%) and LBP-W-related (6.1%) papers is the journal “Spine”. Cognitive behavioral therapy, intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration, physiotherapy, physical activity, and walking were the recent hot topics and physical activity was an emerging trend in LBP-O, while surgery and IVD degeneration (also a hot topic) were emerging trends in LBP-W. This study highlights the paucity of LBP-O-related research in the past. The United States and the journal Spine stand out in LBP research. The research trend of physical activity in LBP-O is consistent with the recognized importance of physical activity for older adults in general, and for managing LBP-O in particular. Conversely, the emerging trends of surgery and intervertebral disc degeneration in LBP-W research highlight a focus on the biomedical model of LBP despite LBP being a biopsychosocial condition.

Keywords:

• low back pain
• older adults
• working-age adults
• bibliometrics
• intervertebral disc degeneration
• physical activity
• surgery

Abbreviations

IF, impact factor; IVD, intervertebral disc; LBP, low back pain; LBP-O, low back pain in older adults; LBP-W, low back pain in working-age adults; LOESS, locally estimated scatterplot smoothing; LSS, lumbar spinal stenosis; Q, quartile; WoS, Web of Science.

Data Sharing Statement

The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Jill Boruff, a librarian at McGill University, for giving advice on the search strategy. The abstract of this paper was presented at the “Spineweek 2023” and “The Hong Kong Physiotherapy Association 60th Anniversary Conference” as a conference talk with interim findings.

Disclosure

Professor Jaro Karppinen reports consultation fee from Orion Pharma Ltd outside the submitted work. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by GP Batteries Industrial Safety Trust Fund (No.: R-ZDDR).