Population aging is a global trend, and falls represent one of the main public health problems in the elderly. The accelerometer can be an ally in preventing these events by identifying risk factors and predicting falls. The number of research with accelerometry has been growing exponentially in the last decades, and following the evolution allows identifying more investigated topics and knowledge gaps.

To perform a bibliometric analysis of primary studies on accelerometry and falls in the elderly.

The search strategy (elder* OR old* OR aged AND fall* AND acceleromet*) was performed in March 2023 in the Web of Science database, applying a filter for original articles. Records were saved in BibiTeX format and analyzed in R (version 4.2.2) using the "bibliometrix" package (version 4.1.2).

We identified 703 articles by 2751 authors, published between 1963 and 2023. The growth rate was 4.73% per year, with exponential growth from 2008. The studies were published in 310 scientific journals, most notably the journal Gait & Posture (n = 43) and averaged 33.6 citations per paper. The researcher Stephen Lord, from the University of New South Wales, Australia, had the largest number of publications (n=19), being recognized as one of the greatest references in the areas of balance, gait and falls in the elderly. The article entitled "Evaluation of a threshold-based tri-axial accelerometer fall detection algorithm" by Bourke et al. This paper describes the evaluation of a triaxial accelerometer-based fall detection algorithm, tested in different settings and physical activity contexts in the young and elderly. The co-occurrence network analysis of the authors' keywords resulted in the formation of 3 clusters, with emphasis on the themes of fall detection ("fall detection", "inertial sensors", "gyroscope", "machine learning", "deep learning", "smartphone"), gait and balance ("gait", "balance", "accidental fall", "Parkinson's disease") and physical activity ("physical activity", "walking", "mobility", "rehabilitation", "exercise").

The bibliometric analysis of the primary studies on accelerometry and falls in the elderly revealed a marked increase in the number of publications from 2008 onwards, evidencing the growing interest in motion sensors in the face of the aging population challenge. The most widely covered topics in the research were fall detection, gait/balance, and physical activity.

Studies on falls in the elderly using accelerometry are of great interest and relevance in the field of geriatrics and gerontology, and research in this area has contributed to the advancement of knowledge and the development of new technologies for the prevention of falls in the elderly.