US EPA

70654 

Journal Article 

Epidemiology standardization project II: Recommended respiratory disease questionnaires for use with adults and children in epidemiological research 

Ferris, BG 

1978 

Yes 

American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
ISSN: 1073-449X
EISSN: 1535-4970 

118 

Suppl. 

7-53 

English 

The Questionnaire Subsecrion of the Epidemiologicat Standardization Project evaluated the exìsting state of respiratory disease questionnaires for epidemiological research as a preliminary objective. This objective necessitated both an historical review of how the standardized questionnaire came about and a consideration of the epidemiologic principles necessary to develop an objective instrument. Samet (l) has reviewed this subject.

The standardized questionnaire was devised in the early 1950s in G¡eat Britain after the realization that the clinical assessment of subjects in epidemiologic studies was plagued by uncontrollable biases (2, 3). After several years of developmental work, the MRC approved a standard questionnaire in 1960 (a). This questionnaire was reviewed and published as part of a statement by the ATS in 1969 (5). This statement, entitled "standards for Epidemiologic Surveys in Chronic Respiratory Disease," presented the MRC 1966 revisions of the questionnaire (along with deiailed instructions for the use of the questionnaire); it also detailed a series of recommendations on design of studies, size and selection of samples methods for estimating bias resulting from nonresponse and data processing In addition there were brief discussions of basic pulmonary tunction testing techniques, sPutum collection, and aerometric measurements.

The MRC questionnaire underwent modest revision between 1960 and 1976, and a slightly modified version was approved again in 1976 by the MRC. On a worldwide basis, the MRc questionnaire, either as originally designed or as slightly modifred (generally in unspecifred ways), has had the widest use