Exploring the Knowledge Structures of Korean and International Nursing Research on Premature Infants Using Text Network Analysis

This study aimed to identify the knowledge structures of Korean and international nursing studies on premature infants using text network analysis, which represents a text as a network graph that describes how keywords are linked. This network graph refers to a knowledge structure. International and Korean journal databases were searched to extract nursing studies regarding premature infants published in academic journals from 1998 to 2020. Abstracts from the selected studies were analyzed using the following four steps: word extraction and refinement, keyword extraction, co-occurrence matrix generation, and text network visualization. The results demonstrated that 182 Korean and 2502 international studies were published. The common keywords of Korean and international studies were "kangaroo mother care," "stress," and "child." The keywords of the international studies had more branches linking to other keywords than those of the Korean studies. Thus, the knowledge structure of international studies included diverse concepts. These findings will serve as important guidance for future research worldwide. Furthermore, studies to develop a more comprehensive knowledge structure of international research on premature infants are needed. The knowledge structure of Korean studies mainly included concepts related to mothers. Korean studies regarding hospitalized premature infants and communication with parents need to be conducted.