SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article
Front. Endocrinol.
Sec. Clinical Diabetes
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fendo.2025.1596062
The Effect of Acupuncture on Blood Glucose Control in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials
Provisionally accepted
- Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
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Purpose: This meta-analysis aimed to ascertain the effectiveness of acupuncture in treating clinical symptoms of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and to summarize the acupoints and meridians involved.Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and Wanfang were thoroughly retrieved to acquire randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating acupuncture as an adjunct treatment for T2DM. Outcome measures focused on improvements in T2DM clinical symptoms. The meta-analysis was implemented leveraging RevMan 5.4 and Stata 15 software, with sensitivity and subgroup analyses to assess the stability of results and identify heterogeneity sources.Results: 21 RCTs encompassing 2,117 individuals with T2DM were analyzed. The results of 2-hour postprandial glucose (2h PG), body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), bilateral median nerve motor conduction velocity, and plasma viscosity were reliable. No publication bias was noted, except for Packed Cell Volume (PCV) and Traditional Chinese Medicine Syndrome Score Scale (TCMSS). The meta-analysis showed that acupuncture significantly improved clinical markers such as glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), 2h PG, FBG, and fasting serum insulin (FINS). Subgroup analysis for FBG, 2h PG, and triglycerides (TG) indicated that the primary source of heterogeneity for FBG was related to participants with uncomplicated T2DM and a treatment duration of less than three months. No significant heterogeneity was observed for 2h PG, while the TG data were unstable. Conclusion: Acupuncture can significantly alleviate the main clinical symptoms of T2DM, but significant heterogeneity was observed for individual indicators. Further investigation is needed to corroborate its precise therapeutic effectiveness and identify potential influencing factors.
Keywords: Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, T2DM, Systematic review, Meta-analysis
Received: 19 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Si, Chen, Chen, Zheng, Qiu, Wang, Liang, Zhang and Chen. 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: Yaling Chen, Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, Changsha, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.