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. 2014 Aug 26:14:315.
doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-14-315.

Biopsychological traits of Sasang typology based on Sasang personality questionnaire and body mass index

Soo Jin Lee, Soo Hyun Park, C Robert Cloninger, Yun Hee Kim, Minwoo Hwang, Han Chae  1
Affiliations

Biopsychological traits of Sasang typology based on Sasang personality questionnaire and body mass index

Soo Jin Lee et al. BMC Complement Altern Med. .

Abstract

Background: The purpose of present study was to examine biological and psychological characteristics of people according to the Sasang typology, which is popular in Korea. We evaluated the Sasang Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) as a measure of temperament, and Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of the somatic properties of each Sasang type.

Methods: Subjects were 2506 (877 males, 1629 females) outpatients between the ages of 20 through 70 who requested traditional medical assessment and treatment in Korea. The structural validity of the SPQ was examined and its correlation with BMI was analyzed. The SPQ and BMI measures of each Sasang type across age and gender were presented and their differences were analyzed with Analysis of Variance.

Results: Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis identified an acceptable three-factor structure of the SPQ measuring differences in individual's behavior, emotion, and cognition. SPQ scores (29.71 ± 1.00, 28.29 ± 0.19 and 26.14 ± 0.22) and BMI scores (22.92 ± 0.09, 25.56 ± 0.10 and 21.44 ± 0.10) were significantly (p < 0.001) different among So-Yang, Tae-Eum and So-Eum Sasang types, respectively.

Conclusions: The results showed that the SPQ and BMI is a reliable measure for quantifying the biopsychological characteristics of each types, and useful for guiding personalized and type-specific treatment with medical herbs and acupuncture.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic psychobiological features of each Sasang type group.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The biopsychological traits of each Sasang types as measured by SPQ and BMI. A) SPQ in male, B) SPQ in female, C) BMI in male, D) BMI in female. The So-Yang, Tae-Eum and So-Eum are represented with red triangle, green square and blue circle, respectively. The line represents the mean and the whisker represents standard error of each Sasang type groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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Pre-publication history
    1. The pre-publication history for this paper can be accessed here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/14/315/prepub

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