Analysis of Research Trends on Elbow Pain in Overhead Sports: A Bibliometric Study Based on Web of Science Database and VOSviewer

Abstract

The publications on elbow pain (EP) in overhead sports are increasing. The results of previous studies mostly focus on the influence of EP in the ball game and throwing sports. Thus, a bibliometric analysis of these publications may show the direction of hot topics and future research trends. The purpose of this study is to identify the research trends on EP in overhead sports. For the methods, the first step is to use the main keywords of ‘Elbow pain’ and ‘Overhead sport’ merging auxiliary vocabulary to reach the relevant global publications between 1970 and 2022 in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The literature data set is imported into EndNote literature manager software to remove duplication. Secondly, the duplication-reduced articles are imported to an Excel sheet according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of this study. In the third step, VOSviewer software is applied as the main analysis tool in extracting data for analysis from the articles. Then, the main research results for three aspects are obtained by VOSviewer software which extracted and analyzed the parameters of author name, article title, publication journal, keywords, organization, publication country/region, and the sum of times cited from 455 qualified papers. The study found that the United States of America made the most outstanding contribution to this theme study. The research on EP in overhead sports in China requires more attention from scholars. EP in swimming is a new research direction worthy of attention. In conclusion, the research results prove the growth trend of EP in overhead sports. The EP problem not only exists in the ball game and throwing sports but also swimming. Sport commercialization and the involvement of related professional sports organizations determine the degree of EP’s attention in a specific sport and the development of solutions. The development of a region or country also affects the depth and scope of EP study. Clinical research development and in-depth exploration are one of the bases to solve EP problems. Non-clinical action is beneficial to EP patients, but it still needs to be explored and studied.

A Bibliometric Visualization Analysis on Vaccine Development of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)

“…and Waltman, L. for viewing bibliometric maps [ 21 ], was used to analyze the status of scientific collaborations between authors and journals, and keywords’ co-occurrence in the vaccine research of COVID-19. Two standard weight attributes are applied; these are defined as the “links attribute” and the “total link strength (TLS) attribute” [ 22 ]. For a given item, the links and TLS attributes indicate, respectively, the number of links of an item with other items, and the total strength of the links between an item and other items [ 23 ].…”

Lesões musculoesqueléticas em atletas de vôlei: uma revisão integrativa

“…Dessa maneira, é indubitável a relação existente entre a prática de esportes aéreos e a ocorrência de lesões no cotovelo, um dos sintomas mais relatados em caso de ocorrência de desconforto articular de membro superior e, por isso, é de grande relevância a abordagem desse tema. (HAN LI et al, 2022).…”

Distribution and Prevalence of Elbow Pain (EP) in Elite Swimmers in Tianjin, China—A Regional Epidemiological Study

“…In China, research on and exploration of EP in swimming are in their initial stages [5]. As a popular sport, swimming attracts ordinary young people to become elite athletes [6].…”

“…In recent years, the total number of registered elite swimmers on the Chinese mainland has increased steadily, most recently totaling 87,886, but the number of athletes who have been forced to quit because of various overuse injuries has increased yearly [7]. Although shoulder injuries have the highest incidence rate, lower back pain and injuries of joints such as the knees, ankles, and elbows have been on the rise in recent years [5,8,9]. However, there is a serious lack research evidence on the issue of EP in elite freestyle swimmers.…”

“…There are a few Chinese researchers who have initiated investigations into the condition of EP in swimming. Such studies are valuable for assessing the health status of elite swimmers' upper limbs, highlighting specific risks that require attention, and providing information for targeted interventions aimed at preventing EP [1,5,10,11]. However, the majority of studies in the existing literature have primarily focused on exploring the relationship between the anthropometric variables of EP athletes (such as height, weight, gender, and forearm length) and their sports performance, as well as the relevance of these factors in participant selection [12][13][14][15][16].…”