Hotspots and trends of nutrition research in global preschool children from 2012 to 2022 based on Citespace visual analysis / 中国儿童保健杂志

ABSTRACT

【Objective】 To review the scientific research advances in the field of preschool children′s nutrition from 2012 to 2022, in order to provide reference for relevant policy formulation and further scientific exploration in this area. 【Methods】 High-quality literature published both domestically and internationally between 2012 and 2022 was retrieved through Web of Science (WOS) and China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. Excel and CiteSpace software were applied to visualize the research hotspots and frontier trends. 【Results】 A total of 1 816 English articles and 110 Chinese articles were included in the analysis. The cooperation network density of research institutions and authors was found to be low. Excluding the search terms, the top three English keywords were vitamin A (0.74), intervention (0.67), obesity prevention (0.55); the top three Chinese keywords were "anemia" (0.41), "obesity" (0.38), and "nutritional status" (0.18). In Chinese and English clusters, "anemia" and "physical activity" ranked first, respectively. The latest burst words identified were "dietary pattern" and "diet quality". 【Conclusions】 The number of English literature published in the field of preschool children′s nutrition is increasing, but it has shown a downward trend in the past three years in China. There are few studies in this field in China. The research hotspots primarily focus on the nutritional status of preschool children, with less attention paid to intervention research and methodological exploration. Further research in the field of preschool children′s nutrition in China may need to focus on the external determinants of preschool children′s nutrition, such as parental education, diet and food supply.