title: Measuring body constitution: validation of the Body Constitution Questionnaire (BCQ) in Hong Kong.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The Body Constitution Questionnaire (BCQ) was developed in Taiwan to classify people into body constitution (BC) types based on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theories. Since the culture of Hong Kong is different from Taiwan, the BCQ must be validated before a wider application can be preceded.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To adapt and validate the Hong Kong version of BCQ in Hong Kong Chinese population.
  
  
  METHODS
  The content validity of BCQ was investigated by the cognitive debriefing with 10 patients and 10 Chinese Medicine Practitioners (CMP). A cross-sectional study of 1084 Chinese patients recruited from TCM and Western Medicine (WM) outpatient clinics to confirm the construct validity, reliability, sensitivity and responsiveness of BCQ. 225 of the patients were assessed after 2 weeks for the test-retest reliability. 404 subjects were followed up to evaluate the responsiveness after 3-6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Cognitive debriefing confirmed the content validity of the BCQ (HK version) with content validity index of all items ranged from 70 to 100%. 1084 out of 2128 patients (51%) completed the cross-sectional study. The construct validity was confirmed with scaling success rates that ranged from 87.5 to 89.5%, moderate correlations between with SF-12v2 scores, and 3-factors structure with confirmatory factor analysis. The reliability was confirmed by the Cronbach's alphas >0.8 and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficients >0.8).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  BCQ was adapted and validated on Hong Kong Chinese population. Patients with imbalanced BC types had lower health-related quality of life (HRQOL) than those with balanced BC types, which supported the validity and importance of the body constitution under the concept of TCM.
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. Electronic address: wwong110@hku.hk.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Cindy Lo Kuen
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Lam
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Chinese Medicine, College of Chinese Medicine, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yi-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: Department of Chinese Medicine, National Defense Medical Center, Tri-Service General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Sunny Jui-Shan
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.affiliation: Chinese Medicine Department, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Eric Tat-Chi
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Ziea
authors.affiliation: School of Chinese Medicine, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Vivian Taam
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Wong
authors.affiliation: Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care, the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Lee Kin
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Wai
authors.affiliation: Chinese Medicine Department, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Andrew Ka Lun
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Kwan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000592:standards*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Body constitution; Psychometric properties; Traditional Chinese Medicine; Validation