Personal Constitution and Health Status Among Chinese Elderly in Taipei and Los Angeles

This paper reports ethnographic and statistical data on the indigenous Chinese concept of constitution (ti-zhi) and its association with health status. The data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 203 Chinese elderly residing in Taipei and Los Angeles. The informants used several dimensions to characterize their constitutions. They also described how their constitutions originated and were expressed over the lifecourse. The association between these characterizations of constitution and reported number of symptoms/diseases, self-rated health status and satisfaction with health were examined statistically. These analyses indicate that characterizations of constitution as strong/weak or as hot/cold, have significant but moderate associations with the indicators of health status.