Search

Background In Iranian Traditional Medicine, mizaj (temperament) plays a key role in preventive, therapeutic and lifestyle recommendations. A reliable self-reported scale for mizaj identification is critically needed to introduce ITM into the official medical and health care system especially in the case of designing national preventive protocols. Objectives The present study aimed to design a preliminary self-administered mizaj questionnaire and assessed its reliability and validity in Iran. Patients and Methods In this cross-sectional study, a questionnaire with 52 items was designed based on mizaj-related indices. Subsequent to content and face validity assessment, using qualitative and quantitative method, 47 items remained. Based on the non-randomly sampling, the test-retest reliability of each question and internal consistency of the questionnaire was examined by the participation of 35 volunteers. The reliable version questionnaire was filled up by 52 volunteers wherein they were divided into warm/cold and wet/dry groups based on their mizaj which was predetermined by a team of expert practitioners. Logistic regression analysis was performed for validity process between the experts’ assessment of mizaj and each of the items in the questionnaire that resulted to the final ten-item questionnaire divided into two subscales. By using ANOVA and post Hoc with Dunnet statistics, the optimum cut-off points were defined and their sensitivity and specificity was assessed. Results The weighted kappa coefficients of the 39 items were between 0.40 and 0.82 showing their acceptable reliability and the Cronbach’s α coefficient was 0.71 showing the internal consistency. The sensitivity and specificity of the final questionnaire cut-off points were 65% and 93% for the warm group, 52% and 97% cold group, 53% and 67% dry group and finally 53% and 76% wet group. Conclusions Our results suggested that many of the designed questions according to the literature’s mizaj identification indices had satisfactory reliability and the final ten-item questionnaire could discriminate the different groups of mizaj, therefore, this can be used as the first version of a brief self-report mizaj estimating scale.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: From the viewpoint of Traditional Persian Medicine (TPM), temperament of each person influences his physical and physiological properties such as body dimensions. The aim of this study is to review the reasons behind the diversity of human anthropometric measurements and their status in identifying temperament of people. METHODS: In this descriptive study, we searched online databases such as Sid.ir, PubMed, Scopus, Magiran.com and Google Scholar for Persian key words such as "Anthropometry", "ergonomics" and "temperament" and their English equivalent. Authentic TPM books such as "The Canon of Medicine" by Avicenna, "Complete Book of the Medical Art" by al-Majusi, "al-Mansouri fi al-Tibb" (The book on medicine dedicated to al-Mansur) by Zakariya al-Razi, " Kholasa't ol Hikma" (summary of wisdom) by Aghili Khorasani, “Zakhireh kharazmshahi”(The treasure of Kharazm Shah) by Ismail Jurjani and "Bahr al-jawahir" (sea jewels) were also studied. FINDINGS: Results of the study demonstrated that there is a direct relationship between weight gain, BMI and dimensions of soft tissue which are primarily signs of obesity and fat gain and cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Since increase in the aforementioned indices can be a sign of coldness and wetness of temperament, one can argue that people with cold and wet temperament are more susceptible to such diseases. In references of TPM, temperament is mentioned as an agent that changes body dimensions and among the indices that identify temperament, "shape of organs" and "physique" is related to anatomic dimensions of body and obesity and thinness condition, receptively. Magnitude of chest and other organs is a sign of hotness; thinness is a sign of dryness; dominance of muscle tissue is a sign of hotness and wetness and dominance of adipose tissue is a sign of coldness and wetness of temperament. CONCLUSION: According to the results of the present study, variety of anthropometric dimensions is related to genetic loci. Proving the hypothesis of relationship between anthropometric dimensions and temperament and relationship between temperament and genetic polymorphism in TPM requires more research. If the mentioned relationship is confirmed, the process of accessing standard tools for identifying temperament will be facilitated