Epidemiological Survey And Correlation Study On Constitution And Quadrangle Constitution Of Korean Population

Objective:(1) To initially explore the correlations between the TCM constitutional types and Sasang constitutional types from a theoretical perspective. (2) To investigate the distribution characteristics of traditional Chinese medical constitutions (TCM constitutions) and Sasang constitutions among Koreans. (3) The discussion will focus on diet and living habits and Body Mass Index(BMI) and investigate the influential factors in the TCM constitutions. (4) Based on the classification results of the TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions of Koreans, the corresponding relationship between TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions were further explored from a practical point of view.Methods:(1) Searching related literatures of the TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions by the research method of philology, the analysis focused on the features, rules of treatment, Constitution-related Diseases, the theory of nourishing of life and other aspects. The relationship between the constitutional types of the two countries was initially explored. (2) A cross-sectional method was used to do investigation on the constitutions of a group consisting of 937 Koreans between 18 and 60 years old, via the application of "TCM constitution Questionnaire (Korean version)", "Questionnaire for Sasang Constitution Classification II (QSCC II)" and the General Questionnaire and statistically analyzed the distributions of the TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions of Koreans, so as to compare the differences in each sub-group’s constitution composition using X2 test, with social demography as a reference for variation groups. (3) Using the Balanced Constitution as the reference, analyzed the relationships among different diet and living habits, body mass index(BMI) and TCM constitutions of Koreans with the Logistic regression analysis method. (4) Based on the results of the classification of the TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions of Koreans, this paper applies the method of Correspondence analysis to further investigate the correlation between the TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions.Results:(1) Through the theoretical comparative research, it was found that TCM constitution’s "Yang-deficient Constitution", "Yin-deficient Constitution" and "Phlegm-dampness Constitution" are respectively related to the "shao-yin constitution", "shao-yang constitution" and "tai-yin constitution" of the Sasang constitutional medicine in Korea. The phenomenon of coldness is often seen in both "Yang-deficient Constitution" and "shao-yin constitution", and they are similar in terms of methods of treatment, psychology and methods of keeping well-being.The phenomenon of hotness is often observed in both "Yin-deficient Constitution" and "shao-yang constitution", and they are similar in terms of methods of treatment, psychology and methods of keeping the physical well-being."Phlegm-dampness Constitution" and "tai-yin constitution" have similarities in terms of physical features, constitution-related diseases, psychology and health maintenance. (2)①The distribution of TCM constitutions among Koreans:among these 937 cases, apart from those who have mixed constitution and nullity, in the distribution of TCM constitutional types of 900 cases, "Balanced Constitutions" account for 17.4% and 8 types of biased constitutions account for 82.6%. The first three ranks of biased constitution types are "Yang-deficient Constitution", "Yin-deficient Constitution" and "Stagnant Qi Constitution", with proportions of 23.7%,13.3% and 9.2% respectively. The constituent ratios of TCM constitutions of different genders, BMI and histories of allergies are different and the differences are statistically significant (P<0.001). ②The distribution of Sasang constitution types among Koreans:among the 937 cases, besides the uncertain ones, in the distributions of Sasang constitution types among the 714 cases, "shao-yin constitution" has the largest proportion (38.4%), followed by "shao-yang constitution" (36.1%), and "tai-yin constitution" has the smallest proportion of 25.5%. The constituent ratios of Sasang constitution types of different occupation and BMI are different and the differences are statistically significant (P<0.001). ③ Through comparing the results of this investigation of distributions of TCM constitutions among Koreans with the distribution of TCM constitution in the general Chinese population, a certain degree of difference was found.For example, the "Balanced Constitution" takes the proportion of 32.1% among Chinese Norm, while it is only 17.4%among Koreans. The "Qi-deficient Constitution" is most often seen in Chinese groups among Chinese Norm (13.4%), followed by "Damp-heat Constitution" and "Yang-deficient Constitution", while the "Yang-deficient Constitution " is most often seen in Korean groups (23.7%), followed by "Yin-deficient Constitution" and "Stagnant Qi Constitution". (3) Taking the Balanced Constitution as a reference, the relationship between different diet and living habits of Koreans and 8 types of biased constitution has different features. Among them, "Yang-deficient Constitution" is mainly associated with the preferences for hot (OR=1.593) and tea (OR=2.554). "Yin-deficient Constitution" is mainly associated with the preferences for cool (OR=1.815) and tea (OR=2.572). "Phlegm-dampness Constitution" has major correlation with no special preference (OR=5.627). "Damp-heat Constitution" has major correlation with the preference for cool (OR=2.320). "Stagnant Blood Constitution" has major correlation with the preferences for acridity (OR=2.455) and barbecue (OR=2.344). "Stagnant Qi Constitution" has major correlation with the preference for liquor (OR=2.661). "Inherited Special Constitution" has major correlation with the preference for sweets (OR=1.951).In the relationship between different BMI of Korean group and 8 types of biased constitution, compared with the "Balanced Constitution", it was found that the risk of overweight and obesity for people with "Phlegm-dampness Constitution" and "Damp-heat Constitution" increased significantly for OR 2.542 and OR 2.613 respectively, and the risk of overweight was obviously reduced for the people with "Yang-deficient Constitution". (4) There is attribute association between the TCM constitutional types and Sasang constitutional types,which is of great statistical significance (P< 0.001). The closest constitutional types could be classified into the same type:in TCM Balanced Constitution and Sasang constitutional types, the Balanced Constitution was closely associated with "shao-yang constitution"; in the 8 biased constitutions of TCM and Sasang constitutional types, "Yang-deficient Constitution" was closely associated with "shao-yin constitution", "Yin-deficient Constitution" and "Damp-heat Constitution" were closely associated with "shao-yang constitution" and "Phlegm-dampness Constitution", "Inherited Special Constitution,and "Stagnant Blood Constitution" were closely associated with "tai-yin constitution".Conclusions:(1) The results of the analysis of the distribution of TCM constitutions among Koreans indicate that, it has a certain degree of difference from the Chinese Norm, which implies that foreign people have different distributions of TCM constitutions compared to Chinese people, and provides a point of reference for establishing international standards of TCM constitutions. (2) The results of the analysis of Influence factors of TCM constitutions among Koreans reveal that, the different diet and living habits between Korean groups are relevant to TCM constitutions, and are helpful for improving the poor diet and living habits highly associated with TCM constitutions. Additionally, the difference of BMI between Korean groups is related to TCM constitutions, which is helpful for preventing biased constitution associated with overweight and obesity. (3) Through the theoretical comparison between the correlation of TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions, it was preliminarily found that several TCM constitutional types were closely related to the Sasang constitutional types,which laid the theoretical foundation for study on correspondence analysis.The results of the analysis on the correlation of TCM constitutions and Sasang constitutions among Koreans reveal that several TCM constitutions are strongly correlated with specific Sasang constitutions.This implies the existence of a non-one-to-one correlation between the constitutional types of the two countries, and provides a new viewpoint for the study of the correlation between Chinese and Korean constitutional types.