Physical Assessment Of The Key Factors Discussed

Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) has been developed many constitution evaluation methods which are generally based on the physical fitness, psychological characteristics, physical characteristics and diagnosis of Traditional Chinese Medical doctors. Some of them could establish the assessment scale by running the classification tools or questionnaires. The assessment output provides doctors a scientific analysis to determine the patient's constitution type. However, the impact and importance of each evaluation factors were not fairly considered in these existing evaluation methods. They were designed as the same weight value of each question in the assessment or questionnaires. The objective of this study is to address this accuracy and inconsistency issue, and propose a model for the constitution evaluation requirements. This model is based on both of the empirical study that we have carried out from the subject expert interview and the extensive literature review of constitution evaluation. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methodology is introduced in this study to achieve the validation and consistency of this model.To build up the Critical Success Factor (CSF) and weights value for the evaluation model, we have interviewed the medical experts from reputed organizations and conduct the literature review. The collected CSFs are categorized by five dimensions including total twenty-two factors:1. Dimension one is the physical construction characteristics (physical body shape, spine straight and skeleton structure, the size of head and limbs, shoulder width and muscle thickness, skin color, hair thickness, posture).2. Dimension two is the physical characteristics (tongue and pulse, appetite and diet, urination and defecation, sleeping quality, voice and respiration, the tolerance level of body temperature, energy level).3. Dimension three is the psychological characteristics (cognitive capacity, social skills, willpower, personal character, ethics and morality).4. Dimension four is the environmental adaptability (adaptability of social environment, adaptability of natural environment).5. Dimension five is the disease orientation.In order to identify the evaluation factors which covered by the above five dimensions, this study is to analyze the reference frequency in the relevant literatures. It shows there were twenty-two common constitution evaluation factors. According to the frequency level, the order of the factors from high to low are:1.disease orientation; 2. skin color; 3. tongue and pulse; 4. physical body shape; 5. appetite and diet; 6. social skills; 7. personal character; 8. urination and defecation; 9. shoulders width and muscle thickness; 10. cognitive capacity; 11. personal character; 12. the tolerance level of body temperature; 13. adaptability of natural environment; 14. energy level; 15. sleeping quality; 16. the size of head and limbs; 17. hair thickness; 18. voice and respiration; 19. willpower; 20. spine straight and skeleton structure; 21. ethics and morality; 22. adaptability of social environment.Following by the five dimensions and twenty-two evaluation items defined above, we have designed the questionnaire to decide the critical success factors and their weight values for the constitution evaluation model. The questionnaire has been distributed to two major regions: China and the United States. The survey participants are TCM practitioner, TCM researcher, and TCM practitioner or researcher of Western Medicine. The computerized statistic tool is used to analyze and compare the cognitive of constitution. The result shows the highest three weight value of the dimension are psychological characteristics (0.229), physical characteristics (0.207) and physical construction characteristics (0.202). The lowest weight values of the dimension are disease orientation (0.193), environmental adaptability (0.168).The recommendation for the future constitution evaluation model study will be to simplify the model into three dimensions including fourteen factors:1. Dimension one is the physical construction characteristics (physical body shape; spine straight and the skeleton structure; posture; shoulder width and muscle thickness; hair thickness); 2. Dimension two is the physical characteristics (tongue and pulse; energy level; sleeping quality; appetite and diet; the tolerance level of body temperature); 3. Dimension three is the psychological characteristics (Cognitive capacity; willpower; personal character; social skills). The constitution evaluation of questionnaire design can be referred to the weight value and CSF defined in this study. The questionnaire classification can be planned and designed following by the AHP methodology.