The effect of acupressure on symptom management in children: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Purpose Pediatric patients often experience distress, pain, and nausea during medical procedures. This meta-analysis aimed to synthesize current evidence on the potential efficacy of acupressure on symptom management among pediatric patients aged 0–19 years. Design and methods This study was designed as a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials . The literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar, and the YÖK Thesis Center in January 2025 and updated in August 2026, with no restriction on publication year. After the reviews, 17 studies were included in the study. The data were synthesized by meta-analysis and narrative methods. Results The pooled analysis indicated that acupressure was associated with statistically significant reductions in reported anxiety (SMD = −1.021, p < 0.001), pain (SMD = −1.397, p < 0.001), and nausea (SMD = −0.388, p = 0.006). However, substantial statistical heterogeneity was observed for anxiety (I2 = 78.8%) and pain (I2 = 94.4%), and the number of studies available for each outcome was limited (anxiety: n = 6; pain: n = 9; nausea: n = 4). Conclusions and practice implications Current evidence suggests that acupressure may be a promising complementary approach for managing anxiety, pain, and nausea in pediatric patients. However, given the small number of studies per outcome, small sample sizes, and high statistical heterogeneity, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Further rigorous, well-designed RCTs are required to confirm these observations before routine clinical implementation can be recommended.