A CROSS-SECTIONAL STUDY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SCALE FOR THE ASSESSMENT OF AMA IN AMAVATA

Background-Ayurveda perceives disease as disruption in functioning of key bodily elements: Dosha, Dhatu, Mala and Agni.Scrupulous examination of these elements aids right diagnosis and treatment.Diseases wherein Ama plays pathogenic-role, like Amavata, identifying Amaassociation (Saama) or dissociation (Nirama) from Dosha before planning treatment is needed as they require different approaches.Subjectivity in interpreting symptoms by practitioners necessitates a standardized assessment-scale.Therefore, systematic development of a scale to assess Ama in Amavata was planned for unanimous diagnosis.Objectives-To develop a scale for assessing Ama in Amavata.Methods-Pertinent data regarding Ama and its indicators were collected from reliable sources and analyzed to delineate boundaries of domains and facilitate item-generation.Content-validity was assessed by 6-experts by evaluating its accuracy in measuring various aspects of the construct.Revised questionnaire was pre-tested on 30-Amavata patients from SDM-College of Ayurveda &Hospital, Hassan and then administered to 60 patients