Global research trends in aquatic exercise therapy for musculoskeletal disorders: a bibliometric analysis.
Wei Guo, Xiaowei Feng, Weiping Du
PMID 40302249WHAT IT FOUND
Aquatic exercise research for musculoskeletal disorders grew sharply, with 76 of 117 articles published from 2014 to 2024.
It maps publication trends, not patient outcomes. It does not show whether aquatic exercise helps a patient.
Key findings
01The analysed set contained 117 articles. 76 of them were published from 2014 to 2024, and they made up 64.96% of the total.
02The most cited papers included comparisons of aquatic exercise with gym exercise or Tai Chi for osteoarthritis, and reviews that examined pain, flexibility and aerobic fitness outcomes.
03Keyword trends moved from disease-specific topics, such as rheumatoid arthritis, to broader outcomes, including quality of life and functional rehabilitation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The analysis used only Web of Science Core Collection, so studies indexed in Scopus or PubMed may be missing. Only English articles were included, which may bias the field map toward English-language research. Search terms may have missed relevant articles using different words for aquatic exercise. The paper gives inconsistent counts. It describes 111 articles as the final sample in one section and 117 articles as analysed in another. This is an analysis of publications and citations, not a clinical study, so it cannot tell therapists whether aquatic exercise helps patients. Citation counts may reflect journal impact or review status rather than clinical usefulness.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The study was supported by the Ningxia Social Science Planning Project, grant number 24NXRCB09.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the growth in publications or the citation counts as evidence that aquatic exercise therapy improves musculoskeletal outcomes. This paper analysed research articles, not patients, and it did not test a treatment.