Chinese Journal of Tissue Engineering Research ›› 2022, Vol. 26 ›› Issue (14): 2223-2230.doi: 10.12307/2022.487

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Visualization analysis on research progress and hotspots of exercise therapy for sarcopenia in older adults in recent decade

Wang Susu1, Li Lifeng2, Zhang Yimin2   

  1. 1School of Sports Human Science, 2Laboratory of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Health Education, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Received:2021-03-16 Revised:2021-03-17 Accepted:2021-04-23 Online:2022-05-18 Published:2021-12-21
  • Contact: Zhang Yimin, PhD, Professor, Laboratory of the Ministry of Sports and Physical Health Education, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
  • About author:Wang Susu, Master candidate, School of Sports Human Science, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
  • Supported by:
    the National Key Research & Development Program of China, No. SQ2018YFC200013 (to ZYM [project participant])

Abstract: BACKGROUND: In addition to reducing personal quality of life, sarcopenia will also have a medical burden to the society. In view of the risk factors causing sarcopenia, corresponding interventions are mainly carried out from two aspects of exercise and nutrition. Especially, exercise intervention is of great significance for the treatment of sarcopenia.
OBJECTIVE: To analyze the research status, hotspots and tendency of exercise intervention for the treatment of sarcopenia in older adults.
METHODS: Based on the core collection of Web of Science citation index database (Web of Science TM), a cross-search of core studies on exercise intervention for sarcopenia in the past 10 years in the database was conducted, and 2 484 articles were included. Using Citespace5.7.R1 to filter and remove the retrieved data, a scientometric analysis was conducted on 2 401 included literatures. 
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: Increasing concern has been paid to sarcopenia in older adults. The number of international studies on exercise therapy for sarcopenia in older adults increases year by year, and it is estimated that the popularity will not decrease in the next few years. The top three countries with the most publications are the United States, Japan and England, but the inter-regional and inter-institutional cooperation is not obvious. The academic teams with both publication volume and centrality formed with the core of prolific authors include Maastricht University in the Netherlands, McMaster University in Canada and Sacre Coeur Catholic University in Italy. The high-frequency key words include muscle strength, body composition, physical activity, frailty, resistance exercise, nutritional supplement, etc., indicating that sarcopenia in older adults is a complex disease with multiple factors. Resistance training combined with nutritional supplement is an effective intervention means for sarcopenia in older adults. In recent 5 years, the burst keywords include diabetes patients, fracture, heart failure, mice, blood flow restriction, etc., suggesting that sarcopenia in older adults is related to the risk of fission, type 2 diabetes, heart failure and other diseases, and even the prognosis of some diseases. Therefore, the construction of a new model and strategy of nutrition-exercise intervention for sarcopenia with different concurrent diseases will become a hotspot in the future. Resistance training is the core component of exercise intervention, and the combination of low-intensity resistance training and blood flow restriction will have great potential to become a popular intervention in the future. By cluster analysis of the key references, nine clusters have been obtained. Among them, the large clusters with a large number of references include “inflammation,” “leucine,” “autophagy,” “epidemiology,” “fadedness” and “protein,” among which “inflammation” belongs to an emerging cluster. In the past 10 years, studies on the efficacy of exercise in this disease have been mainly carried out at the cellular and molecular levels of tissue engineering, in which the effects of exercise on chronic inflammation and autophagy channels are the basic research topics. Top 10 highly cited literatures are mostly consensus guidelines published by the working groups on senile sarcopenia from various continents, and also focus on sports combined with protein supplement therapy strategy, which are the knowledge base in this field, and reflect the research fields of continuous concerns and future directions that can continue to break through. 

Key words: older adults, sarcopenia, exercise therapy, research progress, hotspot evolution, strength training, aerobic exercise, visualization analysis

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