Older Adults and Digital Society: Scientific Coverage

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Information Science
• Sociology

Background:

• The global population is aging, coinciding with rapid advancements in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).
• Access to and use of ICTs present challenges for older adults, highlighting a critical societal gap.
• Understanding the research landscape on ICTs and older adults is crucial for addressing digital divides.

Purpose of the Study:

• To conduct a bibliometric analysis of scientific literature on ICTs and older adults.
• To map the knowledge structure and identify trends in this research area.
• To understand the publication patterns, authorship, and geographical distribution of research.

Main Methods:

• Comparative bibliometric analysis of 172 documents from Web of Science and Scopus databases up to 2018.
• Co-citation analysis to identify key influential works and research clusters.
• Analysis of publication dates, author contributions, and country productivity.

Main Results:

• The field is in an incipient, exponential growth phase, with two-thirds of publications from 2012-2018.
• A high collaboration level exists among researchers, though many authors are transient with single publications.
• Germany, the United States, and Australia are the most productive countries in this research area.

Conclusions:

• The research on ICTs and older adults is a rapidly expanding field with significant recent growth.
• While collaboration is high, the transient nature of many authors suggests an evolving research community.
• International collaboration and contributions from leading countries like Germany and the US are shaping the field.