Sasangin diagnosis questionnaire: test of reliability

Abstract

Background: The concept of Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM) has been in existence in Traditional Korean Medicine for more than 100 years. It is of great importance that the Sasang constitution type be determined accurately before any therapeutic treatment.

Objectives: Reliability analyse were carried out to evaluate the Sasangin Diagnosis Questionnaire (SDQ).

Design: The data were collected through multi-center research in collaboration with the Departments of SCM in the nine Korean Colleges of Oriental Medicine. The internal consistency test and the test-retest method were applied in the reliability analysis.

Subjects: The test-retest data of 88 respondents were used to analyze the reliability. The internal consistency reliability analysis was carried out using the data collected from 423 respondents.

Results: The test-retest reliability was examined using the Pearson's correlation coefficients, which ranged from 0.44 to 0.74. The chi-square test results showed that there were five independent items in the retest that demanded careful attention. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient showed that all items were acceptable.

Conclusions: All the categories of SDQ can be accepted as being reliable scales.