• Yuting Zhang, Mengtong Chen, Chunlong Liu, Zhijie Zhang, and Xihua Fu.
• Clinical Medical College of Acupuncture Moxibustion and Rehabilitation, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China.
• Medicine (Baltimore). 2022 Sep 30; 101 (39): e30779e30779.

BackgroundDue to the huge impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on a global scale, the level of physical activity during confinement has become a widespread concern. This study summarizes the development of performance and research trends in COVID-19 and physical activity over the last 3 years.MethodsResearch publications on COVID-19 and physical activity in the past 3 years were downloaded from the Web of Science database. CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to analyze the authors, published outputs, journals, cited authors, countries and institutions, co-cited journals, cited references, and keywords. Statistical and centrality analyses were used to identify the active authors, core journals, basic references, hot topics, and cutting-edge fields.ResultsA total of 1331 papers was retrieved. SMITH L was a prolific author in the field of exercise intervention in COVID-19 with 11 publications. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health was the most productive journal (179 publications) and the most cited journal (1324). The most productive countries and institutions in this field were the USA (322 publications) and Harvard Medical School (21 publications). The four hot keywords in COVID-19 and physical activity research were physical activity, exercise, health, and mental health.ConclusionsThis study provides researchers with directions to intervene in changing levels of physical activity during the COVID-19 pandemic and valuable information for researchers in the field of sports medicine to identify potential collaborators, collaborating institutions, hot issues, and research frontiers.Copyright © 2022 the Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc.

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