Abstract
BACKGROUND: Functional constipation (FC) is a common health issue in children, impacting their health-related quality of life. Chinese pediatric therapeutic massage, also called Chinese pediatric Tuina, a traditional Chinese manual manipulation therapy, has been utilized for managing FC in children. This study examined the effects of 2 types of pediatric Tuina therapy, regular and Han's style, on FC in children diagnosed based on the Rome IV criteria and with the type of food stagnation accompanied by interior heat/inflammation in traditional Chinese medicine. METHODS: The study involved 196 children aged 1 to 7 years (mean [M] age 2.7 ± 1.5 years) diagnosed with FC for 3 to 6 months based on Rome IV criteria and traditional Chinese medicine's diagnosis of food stagnation with internal heat/inflammation. Two groups of 98 participants each were randomly formed. One group received regular pediatric Tuina therapy, while the other received Han's style pediatric Tuina therapy for 2 sessions. Each session lasted for 7 days with a one-day break, and a 3-day break was scheduled between the 2 sessions. Bristol stool scale, scale of defecation difficulty, scale of stooling duration, scale of stooling frequency, and abdominal bloating were assessed at pretreatment, post-first session, post-second session, and 1-week after the second session. Paired t-tests and independent t-tests were used to examine significant differences in measures among data collected from different time points within each group and between the 2 groups, respectively. RESULTS: Both types of Tuina therapy (regular and Han's style) demonstrated significant improvements in all measures compared to pre-Tuina (P < .05). Han's style Tuina showed significantly better effects (P ≤ .01) than regular Tuina. CONCLUSION: Chinese pediatric Tuina therapy significantly improved FC symptoms caused by food stagnation with interior heat/inflammation in the studied population, with Han's style having certain advantages. The Chinese Tuina therapy used in the study could be recommended as an alternative management approach for FC in children.