Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Community and Physician, cilt.40, sa.1, ss.73-80, 2025 (Scopus)
The rapidly increasing elderly population in Turkey has heightened the need for academic studies in the field of elderly health. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on articles indexed in TR Dizin related to elderly health, covering the ten-year period between 2014 and 2023, as well as the first eight months of 2024. Among the 11,066 articles reached through the search criteria, 3,044 were identified as relevant to elderly health and analyzed in detail. It was observed that the number of studies increased over time, with a particularly notable rise in 2020-2021. From a thematic perspective, “Health Issues in the Elderly” was found to be the dominant topic (72.2%). However, over the years, there has been a growing thematic diversity, including social and economic problems, policies, environmental factors, and healthy aging. Nonetheless, “Elderly Discrimination, Abuse and Neglect” and “Age-Friendly Cities” have received more limited attention in the academic literature. In terms of research design, observational studies predominated, while intervention studies were insufficient. Notably, there were few intervention studies focusing on lifestyle changes and rehabilitation programs. It was also determined that 66.4% (2,021 publications) of the related works in TR Dizin received no citations, and Turkish-language publications had a higher citation rate compared to those in English (p<0.05), suggesting that Turkish sources are more frequently utilized by researchers. In conclusion, while the increase in the number of publications and the thematic diversity in elderly health studies in Turkey is encouraging, there is a need to further integrate social, environmental, and policy dimensions into research and to increase intervention studies. Moreover, strengthening the Turkish literature is important for supporting education in the native language and for informing the development of national policies.