Target groups for this report are occupational health and safety professionals, health and
safety authorities, health and safety managers in workplaces and industry, and research
ers in occupational health research.
Studies on occupational skin diseases have used different questions and questionnaires
which make it difficult to compare the results among studies, countries and over time. A
standardised questionnaire on occupational skin diseases will benefit both research on
and prevention of skin diseases in practice. It will lower the threshold and costs for planning a survey or to monitor hand dermatitis. It will help to provide more comparable in
formation on skin diseases in different populations. This recently designed tool can also
be used for monitoring hand dermatitis in workplaces, for example, after preventive in
terventions or other changes in work chemicals or processes.
NOSQ-2002/SHORT is a ready-to-use questionnaire. It is simple and easy to use for
screening and monitoring occupational skin diseases. NOSQ-2002/LONG, as in the report, is ready-to-use for general populations, but has to be tailored to specific populations, such as occupational groups, according to the instructions given in NOSQ-2002/INFO. The long version can also be used by choosing the relevant questions or question
sets needed for a specific study. The questionnaire is based on existing Nordic question
naires, when available. Sections on exposure and urticaria, for example, are designed for
this questionnaire as very few existing questionnaires include questions on these subjects.