Design and Validation of a Questionnaire Assessing the Compliance with Persian Medicine Principles Affecting on Functional Bloating

Given the holistic view of Iranian medicine and the importance of planning to reduce the clinical complications of bloating in the military, this study was conducted for the first time to develop and standardize the questionnaire of compliance with the principles of effective Iranian medicine on functional bloating.

Initial questionnaires of 25 questions were extracted from authentic sources of Iranian medicine libraries by extracting the factors affecting functional bloating on lifestyle. Content validity of the questionnaire was calculated by calculating CVI and CVR indices and using the opinions of 25 Iranian medical experts. Exploratory factor analysis was also performed to evaluate the construct validity with 378 individuals enrolled in the study by cluster sampling. Test-retest and Cronbach's alpha coefficient were used to assess the reliability and stability of the questionnaire.

The content validity of the 15-item questionnaire was estimated to be 0.92 by removing 10 questions from the set of questions and reviewing the other 10 questions. Exploratory factor analysis also revealed that the four domains of eating pattern, drinking pattern, sleep pattern and sexual activity were 49.93% of the total variance. Eating pattern was the most important area of ​​the questionnaire because with the highest number of questions, it accounted for 20.85% of the total variance and had the strongest correlation with the total score of the questionnaire. The intra-cluster correlation coefficient of the test in the test-retest test was 0.851 which indicates its stable consistency. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.793 and in the desired range.

The questionnaire of compliance with the principles of Iranian medicine affecting functional bloating has a good reliability and validity and can be used as an appropriate tool to examine aspects of lifestyle affecting functional bloating and gastrointestinal discomfort in the military.