Development and evaluation of Chinese medicine fire-heat syndrome scale in oral cavity for measuring Chinese herb toothpaste.
OBJECTIVE
To formulate the standard measuring tool for the evaluations on fire-heat syndrome in oral cavity by means of Chinese medicine (CM).


METHODS
The measuring scale for fire-heat syndrome in the oral cavity by means of CM was investigated by symptom collection, item pool formulation, item selection, pre-investigation, evaluations on the reliability, validity and reactivity of the measuring scale, according to the principles for measuring scale design and under the guidance of CM theories.


RESULTS
The measuring scale was composed of two integrative parts: the self-filling section and the interview section. As far as the reliability was concerned, the total Cronbach α coefficient of the measuring scale was 0.866, the total test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.726 and the split-half reliability coefficient was 0.851. As far as the validity was concerned, the scores for the subjects of fire-heat syndrome in oral cavity and healthy people in their oral cavity in the items of symptoms were statistically different (P<0.01); three common divisors were extracted according to the theoretical dimensions, the accumulated contribution rate was 63.468%. As far as the reactivity was concerned, the difference between the symptom scores before and after the test in which 31 subjects used the Chinese herb toothpaste was statistically significant (P<0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
This measuring scale has relatively good reliability, validity and reactivity, and it can be used in an objective quantitative evaluation on patients suffering from fire-heat syndrome in oral cavity, and thus lay the foundations for the evaluations on the therapeutic effects of Chinese herb toothpaste on fire-heat syndrome in oral cavity.
School of Pre-clinical Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, China.
Hui
H
Zhao
Shao-Xian
SX
Wang
Xiao-Hong
XH
Li
Jia-Xu
JX
Chen
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal / Q000494:pharmacology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D006801:Humans; D009055:Mouth / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000473:pathology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013577:Syndrome; D014070:Tooth / Q000187:drug effects; D014100:Toothpastes / Q000494:pharmacology*
D004365:Drugs, Chinese Herbal; D014100:Toothpastes