Physiotherapy research on low back pain in the Indian context: A bibliometric analysis using the Scopus database

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Low back pain (LBP) is a common musculoskeletal condition that necessitates public health concerns. It also attracts considerable research interest among physiotherapists. OBJECTIVE: This study conducted a bibliometric analysis to reveal the affinity of Indian physiotherapists toward research on LBP using the Scopus database. METHODS: An electronic search was performed on December 23, 2020, using specific keywords. The data was downloaded in a Scopus plain text file (.txt) format and were analyzed using R studio (biblioshiny) software. RESULTS: Two hundred and thirteen articles concerning LBP published from 2003 to 2020 were retrieved from the Scopus database. Among those articles (N= 213), 85.45% (n= 182) were published between 2011 and 2020. An article published by “James SL (2018)” in the Lancet had the highest citation of 1439. The highest collaboration was between India and the United Kingdom, and India and the United States of America jointly accounted for 12.2% (n= 26) of the entire articles (N= 213). CONCLUSION: Indian physiotherapists have shown an interest through gradually increasing their research output on LBP since 2015. They contributed effectively to various journals and international collaboration. Nevertheless, there is room to improve the quality and quantity of LBP articles in high-quality journals, thereby enhancing the citation count. This study recommends improving the scientific output of Indian physiotherapists on LBP by expanding their international networks.