Traditional & Alternative Medicine

Biography

Biography: Jihye Kim

Abstract

Chronic Dyspepsia (CD) is one of the most common diseases worldwide. According to the theory of Traditional Medicine (TM), CD appears to have individual differences and therefore it can be subdivided into different pattern identification (PI). CD is mainly considered the Spleen Qi (SQ) deficiency PI. SQ deficiency PI is one of the most common pattern in TM clinics. However, no diagnostic tools such as a questionnaires or medical devices have been validated in clinical studies. This study was performed to determine the reliability and validity of the ‘Spleen Qi Deficiency Questionnaire (SQDQ)’ for the 60 patients with CD. All participants were evaluated by filling in SQDQ and analyzing them. The internal consistency and construct validity of SQDQ were assessed using all the dataset obtained in the current study. The SQDQ showed sufficient internal consistency. Four factors from the SQDQ were extracted through explanatory factor analysis. The percentage of explaiend variance was 65.1%. In the distribution of PI, 68.3% and 31.7% of the participants showed to have SQ and non-SQ groups respectively. The study compared the SQDQ scores between SQ and non-SQ groups. Significant differences in most of SQDQs’ items were observed between the SQ and the non-SQ groups. However, the ‘emaciation’, ‘tongue diagnosis’ and ‘pulse diagnosis’ illustrated no significant differences. The results suggest an alternative diagnostic approach to assess sub-patterns of CD. The proposed diagnostic method will help physicians classify patients into subgroups and the patients would benefit from more precise diagnosis and therapy.