Autoregressive Cross-Lagged Modeling of The Longitudinal Relationship Between Sub-Health and Cold Hypersensitivity

Abstract

Background: Sub-health refers to abnormal symptoms that occur in the body, but with no specific disease, and a high probability of future diseases. Meanwhile, cold hypersensitivity is one of the most basic diagnosis methods used in Oriental medicine for explaining a patient’s health status, and various studies have supported its association with health status. The present study analyzed differences in cold hypersensitivity regarding health status and examined changes in health status and cold hypersensitivity over time. Methods: The health status and cold hypersensitivity of 255 adults from Daejeon in South Korea were examined. To assess the longitudinal relationship between health status and cold hypersensitivity, data at baseline, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up were used for analysis using an autoregressive cross-lagged model (ARCLM).Results: ARCLM analysis showed that the path coefficients of each autoregressive coefficient (baseline to 6-month follow-up, 6-month follow-up to 12-month follow-up) of health status and cold hypersensitivity moving from measurement time point t to t+1 were significant in all time intervals. The same was true for health status patterns. Thus, these findings suggested that health status and cold hypersensitivity were not transient symptoms but persisted over time. The findings also showed that health status had a significant cross-lagged effect on cold hypersensitivity.Conclusions: Health status and cold hypersensitivity were found to be stable and associated with each other over time. Therefore, consistent care is necessary to maintain health status and treat cold hypersensitivity. The longitudinal data used in this study to examine the causal relationship between health status and cold hypersensitivity demonstrate the diagnostic value of cold hypersensitivity and the need for health status-based interventions.