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

Table 7

Factor loadings of sixteen items and Cronbach’s α values of the factors.

Item	Cronbach’s α of each factor	Factor
		1	2	3	4	5
Afternoon flush	0.737	0.736	0.368	0.048	0.027	0.128
Rough skin		0.734	−0.051	0.264	0.100	0.054
Afternoon fever		0.688	0.253	0.107	0.240	0.107
Persistent cough	0.818	0.112	0.838	0.135	0.176	0.015
Night cough		0.135	0.811	0.025	0.208	0.072
Morning fatigue	0.724	0.061	0.064	0.783	0.138	0.106
Fatigue		0.108	0.153	0.769	−0.174	0.295
Dull pain of the ankle or knee		0.255	−0.048	0.614	0.408	−0.202
Weakness of the lower limbs		0.397	0.106	0.501	0.435	−0.064
Sweating during sleep	0.615	−0.067	0.154	0.127	0.675	0.164
Night hot soles		0.376	0.151	0.003	0.632	0.153
Night itch		0.362	0.238	0.048	0.581	−0.051
Wake due to night urination	0.492	0.057	0.303	0.061	−0.006	0.588
Hair loss		0.444	−0.207	0.001	0.136	0.576
Tinnitus		−0.109	−0.122	0.280	0.383	0.545
Residual urine		0.311	0.468	0.042	0.040	0.473
Variance explained (%)		15.05	12.97	12.73	11.92	8.94

Bold letters indicate maximal factor loadings among the five factors. Factor 1, fever factor; factor 2, cough factor; factor 3, fatigue-pain-weakness factor; factor 4, sweating-feet factor; factor 5, urine-hair factor. Final overall Cronbach’s α of the 16 items was 0.828.