Motivational interviewing in chronic disease management: A bibliometric analysis of global research trends (1995–2026)

Motivational interviewing (MI) is widely used to support behaviour change in chronic disease management, but this research field has not been mapped bibliometrically across chronic conditions. Records were retrieved from the Web of Science Core Collection (1995-2026) with a Topic search and screened sequentially, following the BIBLIO reporting guideline; records without MI terminology in the title, abstract, or author keywords were removed, yielding 1321 original articles. We calculated performance indicators, constructed and clustered keyword co-occurrence and co-citation networks with VOSviewer, identified emerging topics with Kleinberg burst detection, and compared coverage with Scopus at the record level. The articles received 32,434 citations (h-index = 73). Annual output rose from four or fewer articles before 2007 to a peak of 98 in 2019 and then plateaued at 70-83 articles per year. Articles with an affiliation in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, the Netherlands, or Canada made up 76.1% of the corpus, whereas 12.8% had an affiliation in a low- or middle-income country. Obesity (43.1%) and diabetes (23.2%) were the most frequently addressed conditions. Keywords formed four overlapping clusters, and the 27 most-cited references formed a dense, shared intellectual base in which digital MI studies were not yet represented; recent keyword bursts included positive psychology, mental health and anxiety. MI research in chronic disease management is established, geographically concentrated and increasingly oriented towards mental health and technology-supported delivery. These descriptive findings can guide researchers towards under-studied conditions and settings, but they do not provide evidence on the effectiveness of MI.