| Body constitution (BC) is an objective life phenomenon, it’s a combination of morphological structure, physiological function and psychological state based on congenital and acquired basis. It’s also an individual characteristics of human nature which was formed during human development.Body constitution takes a long time to form and shows a unique characteristic, it’s relatively stable and adjustable. The individual difference arises from different body constitution can give the body a particular tendency towards disease happening, development, changes and outcome. Paying more attention and study the difference, understand the correlation between body constitution and disease, will help with the disease prevention and treatment. It also aids the unique TCM diagnosis where it is based on body constitution and "zheng".Objective:To study the epidemiology and distribution of body constitution among Chinese local elderly population, identifying the correlation between them, to provide the evidence based personalised TCM care for elderly.Research methods:To conduct the survey for293cases of Chinese ethnic group elderly (above60years old)by using Standardized nine TCM Body Constitution questionnaire,SF-36questionnaire, personal background survey, signs and symptoms assessment form. Exploring the body type distribution and disease prevalence in different body constitutions.Findings:There are39%of the Singapore Chinese elderly population having a balanced body constitution, and61%fall into the group of unbalanced type, the top three types were Qi Deficiency, Yang Deficiency and Yin Deficiency. Chi-square test was adopted for data analysis. It was found that there was a statistical significance (P<0.05) that gender differences have a great impact in the type of unbalanced body constitution, in which women are more dominant in Yang Deficiency, Qi Deficiency, Blood Stasis, Yin Deficiency and Qi Stagnation. Age distribution has little effect on the body constitution type, no statistical significance found(P>0.05). But elderly with Qi stagnation is twice higher in80years and older group. It was also found that there is no correlation between the body constitution and disease type including Hypertension, Hyperlipidaemia, Hyperglycaemia, gastric ulcer, heart disease and body pain(P>0.05). Co-existence of Hypertension, Hyperlipidaemia and Hyperglycaemia in all types of body constitution were observed and accounting for30%in Heat-Dampness type which is the highest. Body pain has high occurrence in all types of body constitution, and it is especially high in Blood Stasis type, accounting for94%, co-existing with heart disease(18%) which has the highest occurrence too in the same body type. These data suggest that "blood stasis" is common in elderly groups.There is a high occurrence of metabolic disease, gastric ulcer and body pain in Phlegm-dampness and Heat-dampness body type, accounting for16%and30%each,16%and20%each and84%and80%each, suggesting thaf "phlegm and stasis"is a more prominent feature in elderly population.Conclusions:Gender difference has a significant impact on the body type formation, but age difference does not affect the distribution so much. There is no statistical significance showing that there is correlation between different body constitutions and various types of diseases like Hypertension, Hyperlipidaemia, Hyperglycaemia, gastric ulcer and heart disease, but the occurrence is relatively high in Phlegm-dampness and Heat-dampness type. Body pain has high morbidity in all body types, prompting increasing concern needed for the health of the elderly. |
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