The following exercises are meant to illustrate the issues associated with measurement in epidemiological studies. The two exercises presented are simple exercises which illustrate the problems frequently encountered with measurements and their interpretation.
The first exercise is the interpretation of chest radiographs. Four radiographs will be presented and these should be interpreted by the participants according to a standard format, following the directions on the Radiography report form which is appended to this exercise. Anyone can participate, regardless of qualification or previous experience.
The exercise will illustrate variation in interpretation of a commonly used test which is often considered an essential item for diagnosis of chest diseases. The exercise is based on standard reading of chest films which has been developed for the reading of chest radiographs for the presence of pneumoconiosis, developed by the International Labor Office.
The second exercise illustrates the use of a standard Respiratory symptoms questionnaire, in this case, an expanded version of the bronchial symptoms questionnaire developed by the IUATLD for the study of asthma.
