Psychosomatic Medicine 5:148-151 (1943)
© 1943 American Psychosomatic Society

A Further Note on the Measurement of Autonomic Balance

¹ The Samuel S. Fels Research Institute, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio

A third factor analysis of physiological measurements of 81 children has demonstrated a factor involving functions innervated by the autonomic nervous system similar to factors found in two previously reported analyses. A regression equation derived from the factor pattern and utilized for obtaining factor estimates termed scores of "autonomic balance" also was found to give similar results to those obtained by the two previously described equations. It has been shown that all three equations result in scores which are fairly stable from year to year in the same children.

Since factor patterns cannot be regarded as accurate for the number of subjects available in these studies, it was argued that some average of the three analyses would afford the most valid results. A new regression equation was derived by using the rounded means of the weights from the three original equations. This new equation termed the "Normative Regression Equation for the Estimation of Autonomic Balance" was shown to be sufficiently similar to each of the original equations to justify its substitution for any one of them, and was found to be of equal or greater reliability than the average reliability of the original equations. Its use is recommended in future work.