Study On Applicability Of Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Scale In Allergic Diseases

ObjectiveThe purpose of this paper is to study the applicability of the Health Scale of Traditional Chinese Medicine Brief Version (HSTCM-BREF) among people with allergic rhinitis and/or asthma; to explore the correlation between the HSTCM-BREF, allergic rhinitis symptoms scale and asthma control test; to investigate factors which may be related with the progress or pathogenesis of allergic rhinitis or asthma.MethodA total of243cases with allergic diseases from the outpatient departments of respiration, ear-nose-throat or the health promotion center of Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medical, including152cases of allergic rhinitis,46cases of asthma,45cases of allergic rhinitis and asthma were recruited. We evaluated the quality of life, symptoms and severity of the disease via the HSTCMBREF、EQ-5D-3L、asthma control test and allergic rhinitis symptom scale. The internal consistency reliability of HSTCMBREF is evaluated by the Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. We used spearman correlation coefficient to test the convergent validity. We addressed the discriminant validity by non-parametric test and plotting stem-and-leaf display with mean, standard deviation,95%confidence interval (CI). Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to detect the goodness of fit between the scale structure and the obtained data from this population. The correlation between HSTCMBREF and asthma control test or allergic rhinitis symptom scale was explored by linear regression model.Results The response rate of the questionnaire was98.5%, it was99.6%and95.7%for the HSTCMBREF and the EQ-5D-3L, respectively. The average scores of the HSTCMBREF and the EQ-5D-3L was60.5±12.9and0.78±0.09. The Cronbach’s alpha’s coefficient of HSTCMBREF was0.902; The correlation coefficients between the HSTCMBREF and EQ-5D-3L±VAS were-0.339,-0.476. No significant difference could be found between the HSTCMBREF scores among the different level of severity degree. Testing of the goodness of fit showed that RMSEA was0.023, NNFI was0.95and GFI0.85, CFI0.96. There are ceiling effects among53.6%items of HSTCMBREF. Correlation between the HSTCMBREF and asthma control test, allergic rhinitis symptom scale existed to a certain degree. Factors as breast feeding, food allergy, smoking, histoire familiale, living area, dust mites, sunshine time and amount of exercise may be related with the pothogenesy or progress of allergic rhinitis and/or asthma.ConclusionHSTCMBREF has good reliability. The goodness of fit was good for HSTCMBREF among people with allergic disease. HSTCMBREF has a moderate correlation with EQ-5D-3L. Distinguish validity was poor in the classification of allergic diseases. Ceiling effect could be detected in the Physical Functioning under Natural Environment (PFNE) and the Adaptability of Social Environment (ASE) domains of HSTCMBREF. With the change of severity of asthma or symptoms of allergic rhinitis, quality of life changed accordingly.