A study of kidney Yin deficiency in menopausal women

The Project Demonstrating Excellence (PDE) for this Ph.D. program was focused in the area of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The goals of the research project were to determine what percentage of women between the ages of forty-five and sixty meet the criteria of Kidney Yin Deficiency and to compare this result to a control group to determine if this percentage was statistically different from the control group's percentage. Kidney Yin Deficiency is a Traditional Chinese Medical diagnosis of a Qi imbalance in the body. This is a frequent diagnosis of peri-menopausal and post-menopausal women by TCM practitioners. The goal was to understand if this diagnosis is more frequent for women in this age group, who make up the menopausal group, than in a group, which is definitely not menopausal.; A questionnaire was created to diagnose if a participant was Kidney Yin Deficient using both academic textbooks and inputs from experienced Acupuncturists. This questionnaire determined what portion of each of the population groups sampled were Kidney Yin Deficient. A description of this diagnosis and the background material is contained in the P.D.E. document. Participants were recruited from the local community. Confidentiality and informed consent guidelines were strictly adhered to. The control group contained normally menstruating women between the ages of eighteen and thirty. The sample group contained women between the ages of forty-five to sixty. This group was screened of women who were either on estrogen replacement therapy or had their reproductive organs removed. Data was also collected on two other age groups of women. This information and the conclusions regarding these groups is reported in the detailed results section of the P.D.E. document.; Two approaches were used to analyze the data gathered from the questionnaire. In order to answer the question about the percentage of women in the sample group who would be diagnosed as Kidney Yin Deficient, a score was calculated for each participant based on their answers to the eleven questions related to this diagnosis. A specified number of positive answers created a positive diagnosis of Kidney Yin Deficiency. The statistical comparisons between the groups were made based on the statistical averages of all of the participant's answers to the Kidney Yin Deficient questions. The data was tested for statistical normality. The Normality test p-value scores suggested that the data did not follow a normal curve. Therefore, the more appropriate decision was to utilize a non-parametric test methodology. The Mann-Whitney statistical test, which is recommended for comparisons of data, which does not clearly follow a normal curve, was used. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...