Abstract: Objective To conduct a visual analysis of research literature on the fear of falls among elderly people from 1990 to 2024 using bibliometric methods,provide ideas and references for future related research. Methods Based on the Web of Science database,the relevant literature related to the fear of falling in the elderly from 1990 to 2024 was retrieved,and the cooperation network and co-occurrence network in the CiteSpace knowledge map analysis tool were used to conduct data mining and visual analysis on the countries,institutions,authors,keywords and burst keywords of fall fear in the elderly. Results This study included a total of 1 143 articles,and the number of publications has been increasing year by year,surpassing 100 in 2021. The United States,Australia,the United Kingdom,the Netherlands,and China rank among the top five in terms of publication volume. The most prolific authors were Lord Stephen R,Delbaere Kim,Zijlstra G A Rixt. The high-frequency keywords were risk factors,balance ability,and prevalence rate,and the community was the highest in the keyword burst analysis(burst intensity 22.43). Conclusion The assessment of fall fear,physical function,physical condition,and risk factors in the elderly are research hotspots in this field. The functional stability and social decline are hot research directions. In addition to paying attention to specific diseases that cause fear of falls in the elderly,it is also necessary to strengthen the attribution research of pathogenic and risk factors,optimize the health service model for the elderly,and provide policy basis for promoting the healthy development of the elderly.

Key words: Fear of falling, The elderly, CiteSpace, Visual analysis