Table 5.
Relationship between patterns and other outcome measures.
| Clusters | Corresponding TTH subtypes | MIDAS | Outcome measures | Comorbidity (%) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSS (mean ± SD) | Physical | Mental | |||||
| Intensity (0–10) | Disability level | By PSS items (scores of item 3: the higher, the worse) (reversed scoring of item 5 and 8: the lower, the better) | By “perceived coping” factor (combined items of 4, 5, 7, and 8; the lower, the better in coping) | ||||
| Cluster 1: ascendant hyperactivity of liver yang (n = 46) |
|
Moderate pain (5.5) | Moderate disability (grade III; 9 days) | Item 3: (2.46 ± 0.925) most often | (5.04 ± 3.025) | 43.40% | 17.40% |
| ‘In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”?' | Best performance in perceived coping among clusters. | ||||||
| Item 5: (1.39 ± 0.755) most often | Cluster being different from clusters 3 and 4 | ||||||
| ‘In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?' | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Cluster 2: dual Qi and blood deficiency (n = 34) |
|
Moderate pain (6.3) | Severe disability (grade IV; 31 days) | Item 8: (1.44 ± 0.982) most often | (5.18 ± 3.070) | 55.90% | 26.50% |
| ‘In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?' | Cluster being different from clusters 3 and 4 | ||||||
|
| |||||||
| Cluster 3: liver depression forming fire (n = 46) |
|
Moderate pain (5.4) | Severe disability (grade IV; 24 days) | Item 5: (2.14 ± 1.104) least often | (7.35 ± 4.018)∗ | 41.30% | 10.90% |
| ‘In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?' | Cluster being different from clusters 1 and 2 | ||||||
| Item 8: (2.26 ± 1.049) LEASTLY often | |||||||
| ‘In the last month, how often have you felt that you were on top of things?' | |||||||
|
| |||||||
| Cluster 4: unlabelled group (n = 44) |
|
Mild pain (4.7) | Moderate disability (grade III; 19 days) | Item 3: (1.39 ± 0.868) LEASTLY often | (7.59 ± 3.329)∗ | 34.10% | 0.00% |
| In the last month, how often have you felt nervous and “stressed”? | Poorest performance in perceived coping. | ||||||
| Cluster being different from clusters 1 and 2 | |||||||
Note 1: in this table, “iETTH” stands for “infrequent ETTH,” whereas the “fETTH” is the abbreviation of “frequent ETTH.” Note 2: “∗”: the mean difference of PSS is significant among clusters at the 0.17 (0.05/3) level.