Occupational skin diseases are among the most frequent work-related diseases in industrialized
countries. Good occupational skin disease statistics exist in few countries. Questionnaire studies are
needed to get more data on the epidemiology of occupational skin diseases. The Nordic
Occupational Skin Questionnaire Group has developed a new questionnaire tool – Nordic
Occupational Skin Questionnaire (NOSQ-2002) – for surveys on work-related skin disease and
exposures to environmental factors. The 2 NOSQ-2002 questionnaires have been compiled by
using existing questionnaires and experience. NOSQ-2002/SHORT is a ready-to-use 4-page
questionnaire for screening and monitoring occupational skin diseases, e.g. in a population or
workplace. All the questions in the short questionnaire (NOSQ-2002/SHORT) are included in the
long version, NOSQ-2002/LONG, which contains a pool of questions to be chosen according to
research needs and tailored to specific populations. The NOSQ-2002 report includes, in addition to
the questionnaires, a comprehensive manual for researchers on planning and conducting a
questionnaire survey on hand eczema and relevant exposures. NOSQ-2002 questionnaires have
been compiled in English and translated into Danish, Swedish, Finnish and Icelandic. The use of
NOSQ-2002 will benefit research on occupational skin diseases by providing more standardized
data, which can be compared between studies and countries.