Establishing Six Meridian Constitution Model As Well As Designing Constitution Scale Based On Six Meridian Qi’s Movement Theory

Six meridian constitution theory is a new academic thought formed by the combination of constitution theory and six meridian syndrome differentiation theory.At of now,the research on six meridian constitution theory is in the rise,and scholars in related fields have carried out a lot of basic and clinical studies to explore that theory.Some scholars use the six meridian constitution theory as a theoretical framework to conduct constitution identification in clinical practice.Other scholars apply it to manage chronic diseases,which achieves favorable curative effect.However,the academic community has not yet formed a unified understanding of the characteristics of every meridian constitution.In additions,theoretical ideas about the six-constitution theory has not been systematically and comprehensively summarized.At the same time,a complete and comprehensive constitution model of six meridian constitution theory is lacking.Therefore,this research mainly focuses on the qi’s movement of the six meridians,while discussing the physiological characteristics of the constitution of every meridian by extracting its detailed characteristics,forming a constitution model of the six meridian’s constitution.Based on this constitution model,the research also aims to design a constitution scale and estimate the reliability and validity of the scale,hoping to enrich and improve the constitution differentiation method inside the six meridian constitution theory.The research is consisted of 2 parts.One is theory research,including the literature review about movement of six meridians’ qi and six meridian constitution theory,establishing the model of six meridian constitution.The others are through clinical research,including Item pool establishment,item exclusion,reliability and validity estimation of six meridian constitution scale.The detailed abstract of different part is as follow:Theory researchtheory research tries to figure out the close relationship between movement of six meridians’ qi and characteristics of six meridian constitution by extensive and comprehensive literature review.Besides,the research also summarizes theoretical ideas about six meridian theory.Finally,research form a constitution model of six meridian constitution theory based on the foundational work mentioned above.Item pool establishment and item exclusion ObjectiveTo design a six meridian constitution scale and lay the basis for estimation of the scale’ reliability and validity.MethodsTaking constitution model as guidance,distribute 3～4 relative items for each constitution characteristic of each meridian constitution in the scale.All the items constitute the item pool which is transformed into a digital survey.The surveys are widely handed out through social media tool named WENJUANXING.Eligible data collected by the survey is used to analyze the floor effect,ceiling effect,sensibility,and internal consistency of the items.Items exclusion is preformed based on the results of floor effect analysis,ceiling effect analysis,sensibility analysis,and internal consistency analysis.ResultsItem pool,with 82 items,is established.231 pieces of eligible surveys data are collected.There are 4 items possessing floor effect,17 items possessing poor sensibility,and 22 items possessing poor internal consistency analysis.It turns out that 22 non-repetitive items meet the exclusion criteria.Taking the mathematical statistics result and experts’ suggestion into consideration,21 items are excluded and 61 items are left finally.ConclusionSix meridian constitution scale is basically designed.Reliability and validity estimation of six meridian constitution scale ObjectiveEstimate the Reliability and validity of six meridian constitution scale MethodsHand out surveys through social media tool named WENJUANXING to collect data.Use the data,and experts’ suggestion,to estimate the content validity,construct validity,test-retest reliability and internal consistency reliability.Meanwhile,ROC curve is drawn to reasonably define the threshold value of six meridian constitution differentiation.Results441 pieces of eligible survey data and 50 pieces of test-retest survey data are collected.Experts believe that the items from the scale are enabled to completely and comprehensively account for the characteristics of six meridian constitution.Factor analysis has extract 12 factors whose cumulative variance contribution rate reaches up to 61.155%.The factors extracted are coincident with the constitution model of six meridian constitution theory.Average of interclass correlation coefficient of test-retest questionnaire data is 0.813.82% test-retest samples’ interclass correlation coefficient beyond 0.7,while 62% test-retest samples’ interclass correlation coefficient beyond 0.8.Cronbach’sαcoefficient of all constitution is beyond0.75.When constitution differentiation threshold value of Taiyang constitution is 74,the specificity of Taiyang constitution differentiation can be beyond 0.9.When the constitution differentiation threshold value is54,the sensibility of Taiyang constitution differentiation can be beyond 0.9.When constitution differentiation threshold value of other constitution is54,the specificity and sensibility of other constitution are both beyond 0.9.ConclusionThe reliability and validity of six meridian constitution scale is appropriate.Taking 74 and 54 as constitution differentiation threshold value can respectively fulfill the specificity and sensibility of Taiyang constitution differentiation,while taking 33 as constitution differentiation threshold value can fulfil the specificity and sensibility of other constitution differentiation.