Factor Analysis on Symptoms and Signs of Chronic Low-Back Pain Based on Traditional Chinese Medicine Theory

Abstract

The objective of this study was to use factor analysis to explore patterns of symptoms and signs from patients with chronic low-back pain (CLBP) based on the Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) theory. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 513 patients with CLBP in four hospitals affiliated with Yunnan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, China. Outcome measures comprised 31 symptoms and signs on a six-level self-report questionnaire. Four (4) factors were extracted. They were eventually interpreted as (1) "Qi and/or Blood Stagnation," which includes eight items such as piercing pain; activity limited by feeling of local heaviness, lumbar and flank stiffness with bending limitation and purple tongue, etc.; (2) "Cold/Damp," which has seven items (for example, Cold/Damp pain, pallid face and greasy coating, etc.); (3) a part of "Kidney Deficiency," which includes two items: "dull pain and recurrent vague pain"; (4) "Warmth/Heat," which is related to three items (namely, purple tongue, yellow tongue coating, and burning pain). The four factors accounted for 12.7%, 8.2%, 8.2%, and 7.8% of the total variance, respectively. There are seven items with uniqueness over 0.8. Four (4) TCM major groups of pathophysiology could explain 37% of variance of 31 symptoms and signs of the CLBP patients. Thirteen (13) items are not groupable.