The NOSQ-2002 report includes a review of pertinent literature on questionnaire meth
ods for skin disease studies. The NOSQ-group recommends using the self-report of
hand and-or forearm eczema-dermatitis for estimating the prevalence of explicit skin
conditions on hands or forearms in populations. According to validation studies, under
estimation of the prevalence can be expected from self-reporting. Atopy's role as an
important dermatitis risk factor is included. Also, a recommendation for the translation
procedure, based on guidelines found in the literature, is described. This procedure has
been used for the translation of the questionnaires included in the report. The importance of pre-testing a questionnaire on a sub-sample of the target population is emphasised. This is important not only for new translations and with questionnaires including
new or population-adapted questions, but also when using a standard questionnaire in
new populations. Although exposure and work place questions must often be adapted to
the population under study, the wording (meaning) of the dermatitis questions should
remain as they appear in the original NOSQ-2002