Objective: This study aimed to compare the long-term efficiency of Fu’s subcutaneous needling (FSN) with massage for the treatment of chronic nonspecific neck pain (NNP).

Methods: Sixty chronic NNP patients were randomly assigned to either a group that received Fu’s subcutaneous needling therapy or a group that received massage therapy. The main outcomes indix included pain intensity measured on the visual analogue scale (VAS), neck function assessed using scores system for cervical myelopathy proposed by Japanese Orthopaedic Association (JOA), functional disability estimated by Neck Disabilitv Index (NDI), 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 that both treatment regimens showed similar favorable outcomes on all prognostic indicators compared to their respective baseline data (all p<0.01). However, compared with the massage group, the improvement of VAS, JOA, ODI, and SF-36 was more significant in the FSN group at all follow-up time points (all p<0.05).

Conclusions: Our long-term follow-up results indicate that FSN treatment for chronic NNP is significantly superior to massage therapy in improving pain intensity, functional outcome, functional disability, and quality of life. However, larger sample size studies are needed to confirm the long-term efficacy of FSN in the treatment of chronic NPP.