Construction of a traditional Chinese medicine syndrome-specific outcome measure: the Kidney Deficiency Syndrome Questionnaire (KDSQ)

• Published in: BMC complementary and alternative medicine 2012-06, Vol.12 (1), p.73-73, Article 73
• Main Authors: Chen, Run Qiu, Wong, Chit Ming, Lam, Tai Hing
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis; Chinese medicine; Clinical trials; Evidence-based medicine; Female; Hong Kong - epidemiology; Hormone replacement therapy; Humans; Kidney - physiopathology; Kidney diseases; Measurement; Medicine, Chinese; Medicine, Chinese Traditional; Menopause; Menopause - physiology; Middle Aged; Outcome Assessment (Health Care); Questionnaires; Surveys; Surveys and Questionnaires; Yang Deficiency - diagnosis; Yang Deficiency - epidemiology; Yang Deficiency - physiopathology; Yin Deficiency - diagnosis; Yin Deficiency - epidemiology; Yin Deficiency - physiopathology
• ISSN: 1472-6882; 1472-6882
• DOI: 10.1186/1472-6882-12-73

Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) syndrome-specific outcome measures is needed for the evaluation of TCM syndrome-specific therapies. We constructed a Kidney Deficiency Syndrome Questionnaire (KDSQ) for the evaluation of the common TCM syndromes Kidney-Yin Deficiency Syndrome (KDS-Yin) and Kidney-Yang Deficiency Syndrome (KDS-Yang) in middle-aged women with menopausal symptoms. KDS-Yin and KDS-Yang were traditionally defined by expert opinion were validated by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). Content validity was tested by EFA on a sample of 236 women from a seminar and SEM on another sample of 321 women from a postal survey. Other psychometric properties were tested on 292 women from the seminar at baseline and two systematically selected sub-samples: 54 who reported no changes in discomforts 11-12 days after the baseline and 31 who reported changes in discomforts 67-74 days after the baseline. All participants completed the KDSQ, the Greene Climacteric Scale and the standard 12-item Short Form Health Survey. The EFA and SEM established the measurement models of KDS-Yin and KDS-Yang supporting content validity of the KDSQ. Internal consistency was good (Cronbach's Alpha >0.70). Construct validity was supported by theoretically-derived levels of correlation with the established external measures. Test-retest reliability was strong (ICC(agreement): KDS-Yin, 0.94; KDS-Yang, 0.93). The KDSQ was responsive to changes over time as tested by effect size and longitudinal validity. The KDSQ was a valid and reliable measure for KDS-Yin and KDS-Yang in Hong Kong Chinese middle-aged women with menopausal symptoms.