Research Status and Progress of Ambulatory Care Sensitive Conditions: a Bibliometric Analysis Based on CiteSpace

Background Ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSCs) are illnesses that can be prevented from resulting in hospitalization with timely and effective ambulatory care. As the global emphasis on improving healthcare service quality and efficiency increases, understanding the evolution and research trends of ACSCs becomes increasingly vital. Objective To analyze the research hotspots, frontiers, and trends in the field of ACSCs over the past 30 years. Methods The English literature related to ACSCs published in the Web of Science was searched in March 2023. CiteSpace was utilized to perform a visualization analysis of the publication year, authors, research institutions, keywords and references extracted from the identified articles. The time frame was set from 1992 to 2023, with each time segment spanning five years. The network node correlation strength was determined using the "Cosine" algorithm. For the analysis, "Author" "Institution" and "Keyword" were selected as nodes, resulting in knowledge maps that illustrate co-occurrence among authors, institutions, and keywords. Results From an initial pool of 1 701 articles, 1 698 were ultimately selected for analysis by CiteSpace. Research focusing on ACSCs had generally shown an upward trend in recent years. The top three prolific institutions were Harvard University [81 articles (4.77%) ], University of California [63 articles (3.71%) ] and University of Michigan [47 articles (2.77%) ]. Eight topic clusters were derived from keyword cluster mapping, namely "nursing home""public health""primary care""integrated care""impact""potentially avoidable hospitalizations""management", and "performance". Citation analysis showed that highly cited studies in this field focused on the status of avoidable hospitalizations, influencing factors, healthcare relationships, and reduction strategies. Conclusion Over the past 30 years, research in the field of ACSCs has rapidly progressed and is extensively utilized by major developed nations worldwide to evaluate and improve healthcare services. However, there is a lack of cross-regional collaboration among researchers and institutions, and research interests continually evolve. The main themes include the significance and policy implications of ACSCs and hospitalization for ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSH), influencing factors, practical applications, and policy insights. Domestic exploration of these crucial areas is insufficient and requires more attention in the future.