Efficacy of Tuina for Myopia in Children: Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial

Myopia has emerged as a major threat to the visual health of adolescents worldwide. Early intervention can effectively slow down the progression of myopia in adolescents. Tuina (also known as Tui Na), a significant therapeutic method in traditional Chinese medicine, has shown promising clinical efficacy in delaying the progression of myopia; however, it lacks robust, large-scale, and standardized randomized controlled trials.

This study aims to explore the efficacy and safety of tuina therapy in managing myopia in adolescents, thereby providing solid evidence for the application of tuina in the clinical treatment of myopia.

This study is a multicenter randomized controlled clinical trial. A total of 62 children with myopia will be recruited from 4 hospitals and randomly assigned in a 1:1 ratio to a tuina experimental group and a drug-positive control group (tropicamide eye drops). Treatments in each group will be administered 3 times per week for a total of 8 weeks. The tuina experimental group will receive 20 minutes of tuina therapy per session, while the drug-positive control group will receive tropicamide eye drops administered every other day, with 2 drops per session. The primary outcome measures include uncorrected visual acuity and axial length, while secondary outcome measures include refractive power and accommodative amplitude. Data will be collected at baseline (week 0), on the day of completion of weeks 4 and 8 of treatment, and at the end of the 10-week follow-up period. Adverse events will be monitored and recorded throughout the study. Statisticians will be blinded. Data will be analyzed using SPSS version 28.0.

This study has been funded, and recruitment began in June 2025. As of December 2025, 29 participants have been enrolled, with 16 allocated to the tuina group and 13 to the drug-positive control group. Recruitment is expected to continue until October 2026. Final manuscript submission is anticipated by December 2026.

This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of tuina therapy in the treatment of adolescents with myopia. We hypothesize that the therapeutic effect of tuina therapy is noninferior to that of tropicamide eye drops, with the additional advantages of fewer side effects and stable long-term efficacy, thereby providing reliable evidence and support for the application of tuina therapy in the management of myopia in adolescents.