Objective To understand the research status, hotspots, and trends in the field of diabetes alleviation in the past two decades. Methods Articles related to diabetes alleviation in the Web of Science core database from its establishment to April 1, 2022, were retrieved, and the CiteSpace 5.8.R3 software was used to visually analyze the countries, institutions, and authors of the included articles, as well as the cited frequency and keywords of the subject-related articles. Results There were 2,233 articles related to diabetes alleviation, and the overall number of articles showed a steady upward trend. The top 5 productive countries were the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Italy, and India; the top 5 productive institutions were Harvard University, Min-Sheng General Hospital in Taiwan, Cleveland Clinic, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and University of Washington Medical Center; the top 5 productive authors were Weijei Lee (55 articles), Yichih Lee (31 articles), Shuchun Chen (30 articles), Konghan Ser (28 articles), and Keong Chong (27 articles). Teams with Weijei Lee, Josep Vidal, Andres Sanchezpernaute, David E Cummings, and Anita Courcoulas as the cores were formed, among which the team with Weijei Lee as the core was the most productive; the cooperation in the team was quite close, but the communication and cooperation between the teams was quite poor. The results of the literature co-citation analysis showed that among the authors of the top 10 highly cited literature, 5 were from the United States; the subjects of the top 10 highly cited literature were related to bariatric surgery; the top 5 co-cited journals were Diabetes Care, The New England Journal of Medicine, diabetes, Diabetologia, and Obesity Surgery. The results of keyword analysis showed that among the top 20 keywords, bariatric surgery, weight loss, obesity, insulin resistance, morbid obesity, body mass index, weight, etc. were all related to weight loss and obesity, and other keywords were related to outcome indicators and risk factors; long-term alleviation and lifestyle intervention were the current hot words; from 1999 to 2008, diabetes alleviation research focused on type 1 diabetes mellitus, and from 2009, diabetes alleviation research gradually focused on type 2 diabetes mellitus. Conclusion The research field, diabetes alleviation, is a hotspot for scholars, in which the United States has a strong scientific research strength, and the cooperation and communication between the teams need to be strengthened. The research hotspots in the field of diabetes alleviation are overweight and obese people and weight loss strategies, and type 2 diabetes mellitus alleviation lifestyle intervention and the long-term effects of type 2 diabetes mellitus alleviation are future research trends. The current research on diabetes alleviation is not comprehensive enough, and the type 1 diabetes mellitus alleviation strategy is still being explored.

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