The Progress of Smart Elderly Care Research: A Scientometric Analysis Based on CNKI and WOS

Abstract

To reduce the burden caused by an increased elderly population and to provide efficient service resources, scholars worldwide have proposed and applied smart elderly care. This paper summarizes the hotspots of the existing literature and explores the research frontiers to ignite future research. CiteSpace software was used to conduct a scientometric analysis of high-quality literature collected from both the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and the Web of Science (WOS). Based on the results of the basic situation description, this article highlights six research hotspots in CNKI and 11 research themes in WOS. In addition, it offers three major evolution stages and three future research directions for smart elderly care research. This paper provides a holistic overview of the smart elderly care literature from two major global databases. The results will contribute to healthcare policy designers, practitioners, and developers by giving them comprehensive knowledge and generating strategies to enhance elderly people’s quality of life.