Bibliometric Study of Social Media Analysis in Healthcare

Abstract

This study aims to conduct bibliometric research on social media analysis in the healthcare domain, identifying key trends, influential publications, authors, and thematic developments over time. Investigating academic research indexed in Scopus databases of the subject area from 2019 to 2024 reveals that social media is actively utilized for healthcare purposes, including disease tracking, treatment, health communication, and patient experiences. The bibliometric technique uses the Bibliometric R package and VOSviewer to visualize co-authorship networks, keyword co-occurrences, citation patterns, and the geographical distribution of research outputs. Results obtained in this study show that more studies were conducted after 2015, with the COVID-19 pandemic acting as a key factor for increased research activity. The United States, the United Kingdom, and China emerged as the leading contributors, while journals in health informatics and public health became the dominant publications in the field. The most popular keywords identified are "social media," "COVID-19," "Internet," "human," and "public health." The analysis in the study offers an inclusive overview of the progression and intellectual structure of social media analysis in healthcare. It hence provides researchers, practitioners, and policymakers with valuable knowledge for future guidance on digital data and public health.