The hotspots and trends of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and physical therapy: a bibliometric and visual analysis.
Conghui Li, Ziwei Li, Jiabao Guo and 4 others
PMID 34873371WHAT IT FOUND
Bibliometric analysis mapped research trends linking physical therapy to COVID-19.
High-frequency keywords included exercise, physical activity, and mental health. This overview identifies where research is concentrated but provides no clinical evidence to guide patient management.
Key findings
01The analysis identified 466 English publications from May 2020 to March 2021, with 390 articles and 76 reviews.
02Top research hotspots centered on physical activity, exercise, lockdown, and mental health issues like depression.
03The study is a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications, not a clinical trial or systematic review of interventions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTs
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What it does not show
The study is a bibliometric analysis, meaning it counts and maps publications rather than evaluating the quality or efficacy of the interventions described within them. Only English-language articles and reviews were included, which may exclude relevant research from other regions. The discussion section summarizes recommendations from other papers (e.g., respiratory interventions, exercise) rather than reporting original findings from this study. The timeframe is limited to early pandemic research (up to March 2021), so it may not reflect current best practices.
Declared interests
Funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the discussion of respiratory interventions or exercise recommendations in this paper as evidence that they work. This is a bibliometric analysis of publication trends, not a clinical trial or systematic review, so it contains no data on patient outcomes or treatment efficacy.