Abstract
Objectives:
The objective of this study was to use factor analysis to explore patterns of symptoms and signs from patients with chronic low-back pain (CLBP) based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory.
Design, settings, and subjects:
A cross-sectional study was carried out among 513 patients with CLBP in four hospitals affiliated with Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China.
Outcome measures:
Outcome measures comprised 31 symptoms and signs on a six-level self-report questionnaire.
Results:
Four (4) factors were extracted. They were eventually interpreted as (1) “Qi and/or Blood Stagnation,” which includes eight items such as piercing pain; activity limited by feeling of local heaviness, lumbar and flank stiffness with bending limitation and purple tongue, etc.; (2) “Cold/Damp,” which has seven items (for example, Cold/Damp pain, pallid face and greasy coating, etc.); (3) a part of “Kidney Deficiency,” which includes two items: “dull pain and recurrent vague pain”; (4) “Warmth/Heat,” which is related to three items (namely, purple tongue, yellow tongue coating, and burning pain). The four factors accounted for 12.7%, 8.2%, 8.2%, and 7.8% of the total variance, respectively. There are seven items with uniqueness over 0.8.
Conclusions:
Four (4) TCM major groups of pathophysiology could explain 37% of variance of 31 symptoms and signs of the CLBP patients. Thirteen (13) items are not groupable.
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