title: Biopsychological traits of Sasang typology based on Sasang personality questionnaire and body mass index.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The purpose of present study was to examine biological and psychological characteristics of people according to the Sasang typology, which is popular in Korea. We evaluated the Sasang Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) as a measure of temperament, and Body Mass Index (BMI) as a measure of the somatic properties of each Sasang type.
  
  
  METHODS
  Subjects were 2506 (877 males, 1629 females) outpatients between the ages of 20 through 70 who requested traditional medical assessment and treatment in Korea. The structural validity of the SPQ was examined and its correlation with BMI was analyzed. The SPQ and BMI measures of each Sasang type across age and gender were presented and their differences were analyzed with Analysis of Variance.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis identified an acceptable three-factor structure of the SPQ measuring differences in individual's behavior, emotion, and cognition. SPQ scores (29.71 ± 1.00, 28.29 ± 0.19 and 26.14 ± 0.22) and BMI scores (22.92 ± 0.09, 25.56 ± 0.10 and 21.44 ± 0.10) were significantly (p < 0.001) different among So-Yang, Tae-Eum and So-Eum Sasang types, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results showed that the SPQ and BMI is a reliable measure for quantifying the biopsychological characteristics of each types, and useful for guiding personalized and type-specific treatment with medical herbs and acupuncture.
authors.forename: Soo Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Soo Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: C Robert
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Cloninger
authors.forename: Yun Hee
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Minwoo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hwang
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO 63110, USA. han@chaelab.org.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chae
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D015992:Body Mass Index; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D055670:Medicine, Korean Traditional; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods*; D056910:Republic of Korea; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult