Confirmatory and Exploratory Factor Analysis for Validating the Phlegm Pattern Questionnaire for Healthy Subjects. (9th March 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kim, Hyunho; Ku, Boncho; Kim, Jong Yeol; Park, Young-Jae; Park, Young-Bae
• Other Names: Kwon Sunoh Academic Editor.
• Is Part Of: Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine. Volume 2016(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-03-09
• Subjects: Alternative medicine -- Periodicals; 615.505
• DOI: 10.1155/2016/2696019
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1741-427X

Abstract

Abstract : Background . Phlegm pattern questionnaire (PPQ) was developed to evaluate and diagnose phlegm pattern in Korean Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine, but it was based on a dataset from patients who visited the hospital to consult with a clinician regarding their health without any strict exclusion or inclusion. In this study, we reinvestigated the construct validity of PPQ with a new dataset and confirmed the feasibility of applying it to a healthy population. Methods . 286 healthy subjects were finally included and their responses to PPQ were acquired. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted and the model fit was discussed. We extracted a new factor structure by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and compared the two factor structures. Results . In CFA results, the model fit indices are acceptable (RMSEA = 0.074) or slightly less than the good fit values (CFI = 0.839, TLI = 0.860). Many average variances extracted were smaller than the correlation coefficients of the factors, which shows the somewhat insufficient discriminant validity. Conclusions . Through the results from CFA and EFA, this study shows clinically acceptable model fits and suggests the feasibility of applying PPQ to a healthy population with relatively good construct validity and internal consistency.