ABSTRACT
Objective To explore the relationship between quality life and TCM constitutions of elderly patients with hypertension in a community in Shanghai; To provide the basis for the suitable and feasible community elderly hypertension management method. Methods Through multistage stratified sampling method, 808 elderly patients with hypertension in the community were investigated for their life quality and TCM constitutions on the basis of inform consent and voluntary participation. The life quality and TCM constitution characteristics as well as the relationship were analyzed by applying the statistic analysis software. Results Among the investigated elderly patients with hypertension in the community, 97.28% cases’ overall life quality was above the middle level and 91.46% cases’ self-evaluated health and quality of life scores were above the middle level. 54.70% cases were gentleness type, and the biased constitution was dominated by qi deficiency, yang asthenia, yin asthenia and phlegmatic hygrosis. The relationship between life quality and TCM constitutions may be existent. If TCM constitutions tended to be gentleness type, the physical score and the psychological score would be higher, which leaded to better quality of life. Conclusion TCM constitution characteristics are associated with quality life of elderly hypertension patients in the community. Intervention targeted on the results of TCM constitution identification would be better to prevent and control hypertension and improve health level and quality of life.