Focus on Alternative and Complementary Therapies
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Focus Alternat Complement Ther©2005 Pharmaceutical Press
Focus Altern Complement Ther 2004; 9: 24
The aim of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire as an adjunct to the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) diagnosis of Yin-deficiency syndrome (Yin-DS).
The Yin-Deficiency Questionnaire1 (Yin-DQ1), consisting of 10 items, was developed and validated. Seventy-nine healthy volunteers and 44 patients diagnosed as Yin-DS were enrolled for group A to evaluate discriminant validity and factorial validity. In group B, 83 healthy volunteers participated and test–retest reliability was assessed. Internal consistency was evaluated in both groups.
Cronbach’s α was high (0.8615). Test–retest reliability in a 3-week interval (Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient) ranged from 0.54 to 0.79 (P < 0.01). Factor analysis demonstrated that a two-factor solution (factor 1, deficient-heat symptoms; factor 2, accompanying symptoms) best explained the variance in responses (51.62%). The scores of all items in patients with Yin-DS were significantly higher compared with healthy volunteers.
The data show internal consistency, test–retest reliability and strong discriminative properties. Further research determining the optimal cut-off score for Yin-DS and testing its usage as an outcome measure in a clinical trial is needed.
