Analysis of Traditional Chinese Medicine Physique Types of Elderly Population from One University Community in Guangzhou / 广州中医药大学学报

ABSTRACT

Objective To provide epidemiological evidence for the application of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physique differentiation to the disease control and prevention, Chinese medicine health care, public education and so on in the elderly population. Methods TCM physique types of the elderly population aged over 65 years old from one University community in Tianhe district of Guangzhou city were analyzed by one-on-one questionnaire investigation with the Classification and Identification Scale for Senile Traditional Chinese Medicine Constitution, and the correlation of TCM physique types with gender, age group was also explored. Results (1) In the 65-year-old elderly population of 777 cases, 231(29.7％) were classified into phlegm-damp physique, 129(16.6％) into blood-stasis physique, and 71(9.1％) into harmony physique, which contributed to the major physique types. (2) Physique types varied in the gender. The male was dominated by phlegm-damp physique and damp-heat physique, and the female was dominated by yang-deficiency constitution, Qi-stagnation physique and interweaved physique. The differences of the constitution ratio of physique types in the gender were significant (P<0.01). (3) In various age groups, the leading 3 physique types were the same, and they were phlegm-damp physique, blood-stasis physique, and interweaved physique (P<0.01). With the increase of age years, the ratio of deficiency physique type showed an increasing trend while that of the non-deficiency physique type showed a decreasing trend. Conclusion The investigation revealed the distribution of TCM physique types of the elderly population from one University community in Guangzhou, which has important practical value for the intervention of the elderly population with Chinese medicine.