RESUMO
<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To develop a health-evaluating scale from a Chinese medicine (CM) perspective and reflecting CM conception of health.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>The Traditional Chinese Medicine Health Self-Evaluation Scale (TCM-50) was developed by verification of dimensions, formation of item pool, verification of scoring methodology, and pilot test of scale and item analysis.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>TCM-50 composed of 50 items that could be classified into 4 dimensions including physiology and health, psychology and health, nature and health, and society and health. An examination of reliability and validity of TCM-50 yielded Cronbach's α coefficient of 0.927, and half coefficient of was 0.876. The intraclass correlation coefficient of total score was 0.912. After using SF-36 questionnaire to evaluate the criterion validity, the Pearson of the score of the two scales from the same participant was 0.740.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS</b>TCM-50 has good reliability and validity, and can yield similar levels of efficacy as SF-36 in terms of evaluating people's overall health level. As a scale based on CM theory, TCM-50 is suitable for self-measuring the general health of Chinese patients.</p>