Mobile Technologies and Healthy Ageing: A Bibliometric Analysis on Publication Trends and Knowledge Structure of mHealth Research for Older Adults

The use of mHealth technologies can help to improve older adults' quality of life, and this has generated more interest among the academic community. Publications in mHealth research have grown dramatically from 2011 to 2020, and this has prompted the current study to conduct a bibliometric analysis of the articles published in mHealth- and older-adult-related research. Data were extracted from 290 scientific articles identified from the Web of Science (WOS) database. Significant journals, authors, citations, countries, and research areas were then tabulated, and four important clusters of mHealth research were identified, namely, self-management and quality of life; physical activities and risk; behavior, adherence, and barriers; followed by adoption and acceptance of mHealth technologies. The outcome derived from this article serves as a suitable reference for future researchers in locating any research gaps in mHealth, and in detecting relevant articles needed for additional information. The analysis of this article highlighted older adults' behavior, their needs, and the barriers faced in using mHealth technologies. This information would, therefore, be of benefit to technology designers in developing and promoting mobile applications and tools that are suitable for older adult usage.