SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Bone Research
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1561344
Efficacy and safety of acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy for osteoporosis: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Provisionally accepted
- 1Anhui University of Chinese Medicine, Hefei, China
- 2Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
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Objective: To systematically evaluate the efficacy and safety of acupuncture as an adjuvant therapy for osteoporosis (OP) through a comprehensive synthesis of recent randomized controlled trial (RCT) evidence.Methods: A systematic literature search was conducted across PubMed, Web of Science, CNKI, and Wanfang databases (2014 -2024) to identify RCTs investigating acupuncture combined with conventional therapy for OP. Study quality was appraised using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool, and meta-analyses were performed using RevMan 5.4 and Stata 15.0, with subgroup analyses stratified by intervention type, population characteristics, and treatment duration.Results: 28 RCTs (n=2,758) were included. Meta-analysis revealed acupuncture significantly enhanced bone mineral density (BMD) versus controls: total (SMD = 0.47, p = 0.03), femoral neck (MD = 0.05, p = 0.01), lumbar spine (SMD = 0.40, p < 0.001), Ward's triangle (MD = 0.07, p = 0.02), and hip (SMD = 0.55, p < 0.001), with particularly marked improvements in the postmenopausal osteoporosis subgroup. Acupuncture demonstrated significant improvements in treatment efficacy, biochemical markers, pain scores, and symptom assessments, while reducing adverse events. Warm needle moxibustion outperformed controls in femoral neck (MD = 0.07, p = 0.002) and hip BMD (SMD = 0.87, p < 0.001), while electroacupuncture significantly elevated serum calcium (MD = 0.18, p = 0.02). Short-term interventions (≤ 3 months) demonstrated optimal efficacy.Acupuncture demonstrates efficacy and safety as an OP adjuvant therapy. Current evidence is limited by regional bias and methodological heterogeneity. Multicenter, large-sample RCTs are needed to standardize protocols and validate long-term therapeutic efficacy.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Osteoporosis, adjuvant therapy, Meta-analysis, Systematic review
Received: 15 Jan 2025; Accepted: 16 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Teng, Zhu, Li, Tong, Li, Chu and Sun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Haoran Chu, Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230061, Anhui Province, China
Peiyang Sun, Second Affiliated Hospital of Anhui University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hefei, 230061, Anhui Province, China
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