Development and evaluation of short-form version of the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire: study a new and best brief instrument of Chinese medicine for health management

Abstract

Background More efficient instruments for body constitution identification are needed for clinical practice. We aimed to develop the short-form version of the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire (CCMQ) and evaluate for health management. Methods First, the short forms were developed through expert survey, classical test theory (CTT), and modern item response (IRT) based on the CCMQ. A combination of e-mail and manual methods was used in expert survey. Then, five indexes of CTT including criteria value-critical ratio, correlation coefficient, discrete tendency, internal consistency, and factor loading were used. And, IRT method was used through analyzing the discrimination and difficulty parameters of items. Second, the three top-ranked items of each constitution scale were selected for the simplified CCMQ, based on the three combined methods of different conditions and weights. Third, The psychometric properties such as completion time, validity (Construct, criterion, and divergent validity), and reliability (test–retest and internal consistency reliability) were evaluated. Finally, the diagnostic validity of the best short-form used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Results Three short-form editions were developed, and retained items 27, 23 and 27, which are named as WangQi nine body constitution questionnaire of Traditional Chinese Medicine (short-form) (SF-WQ9CCMQ)- A, B, and C, respectively. SF-WQ9CCMQ- A is showed the best psychometric property on Construct validity, Criterion validity, test–retest reliability and internal consistency reliability. The diagnostic validity indicated that the area under the ROC curve was 0.928 (95%CI: 0.924–0.932) for the Gentleness constitution scale, and were 0.895–0.969 and 0.911–0.981 for unbalance constitution scales using the cut-off value of the original CCMQ as 40 (“yes” standard) and 30 (“tendency” standard), respectively. Conclusions Our study successfully developed a well short-form which has good psychometric property, and excellent diagnostic validity consistent with the original. New and simplified instrument and opportunity are provided for body constitution identification, health management and primary care implementation.

Is there a role for traditional and complementary medicines in managing chronic fatigue? a systematic review of randomized controlled trials

“…Other measurement scales might also be considered: 1) Mental health and mental condition reflected by the self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) ( Zung, 1971 ), the self-rating depression scale (SDS) ( Zung, 1965 ), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) ( Hamilton, 1960 ), Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA) ( Hamilton, 1959 ), the symptom checklist 90 (SCL-90) ( Derogatis et al, 1973 ), Beck depression inventory test (BDI) ( Beck et al, 1961 ); 2) Quality of life and health reflected by the 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36) ( Ware and Sherbourne, 1992 ), World Health Organization quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BERF) ( Skevington et al, 2004 ), the EuroQoL 5-dimension 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) ( Herdman et al, 2011 ), the Activity of Daily Living Scale (ADL) ( Hindmarch et al, 1998 ); 3) Measurements of other items, such as Pittsburgh sleep quality index (PSQI) ( Buysse et al, 1989 ), insomnia severity index (ISI) ( Chalder and Morin, 1993 ), the Qi blood yin yang deficiency questionnaire (QBYY-Q) ( Woo et al, 2008 ), Qi deficiency Constitution Scoring scale ( Bai et al, 2022 ), the quality of sexual life with SLQ Questionnaire ( Woodward et al, 2002 ), psychosocial stress survey for groups (PSSG) ( Jiang, 1998 ), stress response inventory (SRI) ( Kohn and OBrien, 1997 ).Other measurements reflecting the status of fatigue or related functions such as biochemical tests, immune factors, physiological tests, and nuclear magnetic resonance were also considered.…”