Development and validation of Susceptibility Assessment Tool in Homoeopathy (SATH) in homoeopathic clinical practice

Background: The homoeopathic philosophy identifies susceptibility as a key concept for prescribing a similimum, i.e., the indicated remedy and its potency. No validated instrument to measure susceptibility as high, medium or low could be identified in the literature. Objective: The present study was undertaken to identify the factors governing susceptibility assessment and to develop a simple tool for physicians to assess the susceptibility of the cases they see in their clinical practice. Material and Methods: A new questionnaire was developed using standardised procedures including item development, pilot testing, and psychometric evaluation. The psychometric properties of this pilot tool were assessed by applying it on patients in routine clinical practice in different types of illnesses. Data was computerised and analysed by principal component analysis as an extraction method and orthogonal varimax as a rotation method. Results: The final 17-item questionnaire was arranged into nine domains as per rotated component matrix analysis. Overall internal consistency of the final questionnaire, as calculated by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.607, and the measure of sampling adequacy was 0.729. Conclusion: A simple, homoeopathically appropriate, easy-to-use tool has been developed which can be applied by the practitioners during case taking to come up with a score, identifying low, normal or high susceptibility. This susceptibility assessment tool in Homoeopathy (SATH) can be further applied in diverse settings to enhance its validity and clinical utility.