A bibliometric analysis of heart failure symptom clusters

Abstract

Objective To investigate and analyze the domestic and oversea studies on heart failure symptom clusters through a bibliometric analysis, and provide evidence basis for future clinical nursing research. Methods The CNKI the Wanfang Science and Technology Journal Full-text Database, the China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) , the PubMed, and the Web of Science database were searched for the articles both in Chinese and English about heart failure symptom clusters published from database establishment dates to August 31st, 2018 and analyzed on their published years, distribution of journals, and research content. Results A total of 21 articles complied with the standard were retrieved with the first published article dated back to 2009. Among them, there were 13 cross-sectional studies, 4 longitudinal studies, 3 reviews, and 1 tool development. Although different studies had differences in research design, sample characteristics, assessment tools, and analytical methods, the main findings were basically the same: somatic symptom cluster and emotional symptom cluster were common symptom clusters in patients with heart failure; somatic symptom cluster mainly included shortness of breath, dyspnea, fatigue, declined physical strength, dyscoimesis; emotional symptom cluster mainly included anxiety, depression, cognitive disorder; there was still controversy about the classification of edema. Conclusions At present, the research on heart failure symptom clusters in China and abroad is still at the initial exploration stage, and the research results are still unstable. In the future, we can further develop long-term dynamic observation of heart failure symptom clusters and explore corresponding symptom management strategies. Key words: Bibliometrics; Heart failure; Symptom cluster