Development of the Short-Form Yin Deficiency Scale Using Three Item Reduction Approaches

Yin deficiency (YD) is a pathological condition characterized by emaciation, afternoon fever, dry mouth, and night sweats. The incidence of YD is 23.3%. A 27-item Yin Deficiency Scale (YDS) was developed to estimate the clinical severity of YD. This study aimed to develop three short-form YDS versions to reduce the burden of response time, using three item-reduction approaches: Rasch, equidiscriminatory item-total correlation (EITC), and factor-based analyses.

Two datasets were analyzed from previous studies (169 outpatients from May to June 2009 and 237 healthy college students from January to April 2016). The optimal response category was examined using Rasch analysis. Items with higher item-total correlations were determined using the EITC. Using a factor-based approach, the items were reduced, while maintaining the original YDS construct. Reliability was estimated using the person separation index (PSI) and Cronbach's α values. The predictive accuracy was examined using the area under the curve (AUC). Finally, the relationship between YD and dysfunctional breathing (DB) was examined using factor scores from the YDS and the Korean version of the Nijmegen Questionnaire (KNQ).

We developed two 14-item YDS versions using the Rasch and EITC approaches, and a 16-item YDS version using a factor-based approach. Rasch analysis suggested an optimal response category of five points. The PSI of Rasch and Cronbach's α of the EITC and factor-based versions were 2.19, 0.855, and 0.827. The AUCs of the three short-form YDS were 0.812, 0.811, and 0.818. The sensitivity of the EITC-YDS was 0.632, which was lower than its specificity of 0.875. The fatigue-related scores of the factor-based YDS were fairly correlated with the factor scores of the KNQ estimating the DB (r = 0.349-0.499).

The 14-item Rasch- and 16-item factor-based YDS may replace the original YDS during YD's primary screening, epidemiological surveys, and health checkups.