Abstract

Questionaires on symptoms of respiratory disease have been used in Korea to elicit the probable health effects of air pollution in epidemiologic studies. The objectives of such studies often include comparing prevalence of symptoms of respiratory system between different population groups or between the same population groups at different times. Unfortunately, little attention has been paid to standardization of those questionaires, whether those are Korean versions or not. Furthermore, no attempt to develop Korean questionaire on respirator symptoms and relevant information has been made. Followed by 'a comparative study on responses to Korean version questionaires (English origin) of CMI, MRC, and ATS-DLD-78' two types of questionaires on respiratory symptoms and relevant information for Korean adult, which are short form (SUN=81-AS) and long forms (optional questions are added to the short one, SUN-81-AL), have been designed suitable to Korean background by authors (see Annex). The self-administered and closed-question questionaire were tested their validity and reliability by administration to 180 normal adults(medical and nursing students) and 60 clinical patients of Seoul National University Hospital, with spirometric exam. The results obtained and conclusions drawn are as follow: 1. It took less than 10 minutes to complete the questionaire SNU-81-AS and SNU-81-AT. 2. The test-retest reliability of each questions in AS and AL were observed as 92.7% and 92.1%, respectively. And all of the level of agreement are statistically significant with kappa statistic. 3. In addition to higher prevalence rate of symptoms in patients group compared with normal group, the correlations between FEV 1.0/FVC predictive value(%) and number of symptoms were statistically significant in patients group (See Fig. 1 and Table 7). 4. The answer rate to optional questions in AL form among those who are not to do was about 10%, while the no-answer rate among who are to do was about 15% in Normal (medical and nursing students) group. 5. From the viewpoints of validity and reliability, the new Korean questionaire (SNU-81-AS and AL) developed by authors are to be recommendable to use in epidemiologic studies on respiratory illness in Korea. The self-administration, however, of opthional questions in AL form may not assure the quality of data gathered.