The Application of Acupuncture Therapy for Inflammatory Arthropathies Over the Past Decade: A Bibliometric Analysis

Acupuncture is widely recognized as a safe and effective therapy, with growing evidence supporting its efficacy in pain management, particularly for inflammatory arthropathies. However, no comprehensive bibliometric analysis exists in this specific field. This prompted our study to systematically map global research landscape and trends, advancing acupuncture application in inflammatory arthropathy management.

Data were retrieved from Web of Science, covering publications from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2024. Bibliometric analyses, including descriptive statistics, co-occurrence, co-citation, and clustering, were conducted using CiteSpace for cited references and keywords, VOSviewer for journals, authors, references, countries, and institutions, Scimago Graphica for national collaboration networks, and Excel for annual publication trends.

A total of 678 publications were included in this study. Annual publication output peaked in 2020, followed by a gradual decline in subsequent years. Chinese institutions and authors accounted for the highest publication volume, demonstrating absolute dominance in quantitative productivity. In contrast, U.S.-based institutions and researchers exhibit superior citation impact metrics, underscoring their preeminent role in shaping scientific influence within this field. MEDICINE emerged as the most prolific journal in terms of publication count, whereas Arthritis Care & Research exhibited the highest scholarly impact based on citation metrics. Keyword co-occurrence analysis revealed a predominant research focus on addressing clinical challenges and generating high-quality evidence through evidence-based medicine. However, a notable scarcity of mechanistic investigations into acupuncture's therapeutic effects on inflammatory arthropathies was observed.

This bibliometric study fills a critical knowledge gap by systematically mapping the global research landscape of acupuncture for inflammatory arthropathies, revealing China's quantitative dominance versus the U.S.'s qualitative leadership and a skewed focus on clinical validation over mechanistic exploration. These findings underscore the imperative for interdisciplinary collaboration to bridge evidence-practice gaps and elucidate acupuncture's biological underpinnings in inflammatory arthropathies.