2019, Vol.31, No.2

Journal of Sasang Constitution and Immune Medicine 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.42

pISSN : 1226-4075 / eISSN : 2287-786X
https://journal.kci.go.kr/JSCM

Background Sasang constitutional medicine explains that the difference in eating habits depending on constitutional characteristics affects health status. The aim of the present study is to investigate research trend on Sasang constitution (SC) and eating habits. Method Research papers from 2010 to 2019 on SC and eating habits were searched in domestic and international 5 databases. As a result, 11 clinical studies related to the SC and eating habits were finally selected. From the finally selected research papers, subjects, study period, constitutional diagnostic tools used for studies, and eating habit evaluation tools were investigated. Results In a total of 11 research papers conducted as clinical studies regarding SC and eating habits for the recent 20 years, eating speed and meal size items were most frequently used, followed by the regularity of meals, unbalanced diets, breakfast. Taeumin was more likely to eat fast, eat a lot of food, or overeat while Soeumin was less likely to overeat or they eat less food. There was no significant difference in the regularity of meals depending on constitution, but each study showed different tendency. Conclusion This study closely reviewed Sasang constitutional eating habit items from the precedent studies to select the major items of eating habits as a constitutional health management index. The results of this study will contribute to selections of items and the development of tools to measure constitutional eating habits related to health status.

Objectives This study was aimed to evaluate the one-year test-retest reliability of the Korea Sasang constitutional diagnostic questionnaire (KS-15) in university students. Methods In March 2017, and March 2018, a survey was sent by email to 583 Korean medicine students in two universities. Of these, 149 (25.6%) participated and completed the first survey (test) and second survey (retest). Participants responded to the KS-15 questionnaire and the general characteristics including their age, sex, height, and weight. Cohen’s kappa Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and agreement rate (%) were used for the test-retest reliability for each question item and the diagnosis of the Sasang constitution. The independent T-test was used to determine the difference in BMI between Sasang constitutional accordance and discordance groups obtained from the test-retest results of KS-15. Results The agreement of Sasang constitutional diagnosis was 75.8% (Kappa = 0.618), indicating that KS-15 had a certain level (substantial) of test-retest reliability. However, the kappa of each item was 0.161 ~ 0.620, which showed a large difference between the items. The agreements of each Sasang constitution were 85.1% for Taeeumin, 73.6% for Soeumin, and 58.6% for Soyangin. There was no significant difference in the BMI change between Sasang constitutional accordance and discordance groups in the test-retest. Conclusions These results indicate KS-15 has a reliable one-year test-retest reliability. However, further studies will be required to improve reliability, validity and application across different age ranges for the practical utilization of KS-15.

Objectives The aim of this study is to investigate the related factors of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Methods The subjects were 187 persons diagnosed as fatty liver by abdominal ultrasonography. They were divided into three groups according to the severity of fatty liver: control, mild, moderate or severe. The three groups' general characteristics, laboratory results, liver function indexes, metabolic syndrome indexes, tumor markers, heart rate variability values and Sasang constitution distribution were compared and analyzed. Results Male ratio, height, weight, body mass index, red blood cell count, hemoglobin level and creatinine level were higher in NAFLD groups than in control group. The levels of sodium and amylase were higher in control than in NAFLD. In liver function, the levels of aspartate transaminase, alanine transaminase and gamma-glutamyl transpepsidase of NAFLD were higher. In metabolic syndrome index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, total cholesterol, triglyceride and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were higher in NAFLD, while high density lipoprotein cholesterol level was higher in control. The alpha-feto protein level was higher in NAFLD, and the heart rate variability was not different between NAFLD and control groups. In Sasang constitution, Taeeumin ratio of NAFLD was higher than of control. Conclusions The results suggest that nonalcoholic fatty liver is clinically related to liver dysfunction, metabolic syndrome, tumor markers, and Sasang constitution. Further studies are needed to control nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and prevent severe disease such as cirrhosis and cancer caused by fatty liver.