As health economics methods have been widely adopted for developing clinical guidelines and adjusting health policies in the word, the advantages of acupuncture—being simple, convenient, effective, and affordable—urgently need scientific validations through health economics evaluation methods.This paper reviews published health economics articles on acupuncture and summarizes the progress and characteristics of current evaluations in this field.It also analyzes the reasons for low homogeneity and limited number of studies in acupuncture health economics evaluations.These reasons include the scarcity of long-term follow-up data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and real-world data in acupuncture clinical research, limited assessments of quality of life, and significant cost differences across countries and regions.The paper suggests further efforts to improve the development of acupuncture health economics guidelines, standardize research methods, and strengthen construction and training in related disciplines.By exploring the cost-effectiveness of acupuncture, its attractiveness and acceptance in the global health field can be enhanced, so as to provide strong support for the international promotion of acupuncture and its integration into mainstream medical systems.

acupuncture  /  health economy  /  cost-effectiveness analysis  /  guideline development  /  model simulation