Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term efficiency of Fu’s subcutaneous needling (FSN) therapy with massage therapy for the management of chronic nonspecific low back pain (NLBP).

Methods: Sixty chronic NLBP patients were randomly divided into FSN treatment group and massage treatment group. The main prognostic indicators included pain intensity measured on the visual analogue scale (VAS), functional outcomes assessed by Japanese Orthopaedic Association Scores system (JOA), functional disability estimated using Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), and quality of life evaluated by Short Form Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36). These indicators were evaluated at baseline, the post-treatment, 3 months after treatment, and 12 months after treatment.

Results: After 12 months of follow-up, we found two treatment regimens exhibited similar favorable results in terms of all prognostic indicators in comparsion with their respective baseline data(all p<0.01).However, Compared with the massage group, the FSN group showed more significant improvements in VAS, JOA, and ODI at all follow-up time points, as well as SF-36 at post-treatment and 12 months after treatment (all p<0.05).

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that FSN therapy is significantly more effective than massage therapy regarding to the improvement of pain intensity, functional outcomes, functional disability, and quality of life in a long-term follow-up. However, future studies with more sample sizes are needed to corroborate the long-term efficiency of FSN therapy for chronic NLBP.