Comparing Prakriti (Ayurveda constitution types) prediction between Ayurvedic clinical methods and questionnaire-based assessment: A cross-sectional study

In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, prevention and therapeutic measures are based on understanding and assessing the individual constitution, or Prakriti, of patients for choosing the most appropriate regimen, drugs, and lifestyle measures. So, standardization of the Prakriti assessment technique is essential for applying the personalized approach and getting the maximum benefit of Ayurvedic diagnostic, therapeutic, and prophylactic measures. Among the majorly used Prakriti questionnaires, the CSIR-TRISUTRA   consortium initiative is an integrative approach involving the identification of molecular correlates of Prakriti as predictive and prognostic markers of disease as well as therapeutic response. A comprehensive       Prakritiassessment model has been developed by CCRAS (Central      Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences) and is being used for testing healthy volunteers. C-DAC is also utilized by several research studies for prognosis, evaluating therapeutic efficacy, and finding associations of phenotypes and genotypes.

Though all the questionnaires are derived from the Ayurvedic classical texts they vary in their construct and approach. Scare data is available regarding their standardization and validation procedures. There are no studies available, evaluating the agreement between different questionnaires and their comparison with physician’s Prakriti assessment. Though the Prakriti assessment questionnaires are based on Ayurvedic classical texts, they differ in their derivation, structure, and algorithms for scoring and assignment of the Prakriti. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate the agreement in Prakriti prediction by Ayurveda physicians as a reference to the Questionnaire-based Prakriti assignment.