• Journal of Sasang Constitutional Medicine
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.1-15
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• 2021

Introduction The clinical usefulness of Sasang Digestive Function Inventory (SDFI) for analyzing Sasang type-specific pathophysiological symptom was illustrated repeatedly. It was revised to enhance its validity, reliability and clinical usefulness, however its clinical studies supporting these were not sufficient yet. Methods 193 healthy university students responded once to Nepean Dyspepsia Index-Korean (NDIK), Functional Dyspepsia-Related Quality of Life (FDQOL), and Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), and twice to SDFI with four weeks of interval. The Body Mass Index (BMI) and Ponderal Index (PI) were also calculated. The 4-week test-retest reliability and correlation coefficients between NDIK, FDQOL, DEBQ, and SDFI were examined using Pearson's correlation. The significant differences between Sasang types in SDFI and its subscales were examined using ANCOVA with the age as covariate. Results The range of test-retest reliability for SDFI and its subscales was from 0.801 to 0.887. The SDFI-total correlated positively with BMI (r=0.323) and DEBQ-External Eating (r=0.433), while the SDFI-Digestion negatively with NDIK (r=-0.472) and FDQOL-total (r=-0.364). The SDFI-Habit correlated positively with BMI (r=0.310) and DEBQ-total (r=0.481), and the SDFI-Appetite with DEBQ-total (r=0.322). The SDFI-total, SDFI-Digestion, and SDFI-Habit scores of Tae-Eum type (35.6±6.25, 12.38±3.24 and 9.89±3.38, respectively) were significantly bigger than those of So-Eum type (29.84±8.31, 9.93±4.28 and 7.66±3.96). Discussion The SDFI was found to be an objective clinical measure with sufficient concurrent validity for measuring eating behavior and quality of life related to overeating and dyspepsia, and illustrated distinctive differences between Sasang types. It might be useful for the effective medical education and integrative medical practice.