Introductory Course in Clinimetrics
Dear Participants,
On this page you will find a course outline, teaching notes, vodcasts and links to articles which are relevant for the teachings on day 1, 2 and 3.
We are looking forward to a good course.

Please note:
- This webpage will be closed for access approx. 2 weeks after completion of the course.
- Several of the documents may not be ready for download when you get access to the webpage (links will show ‘Not Found’ when clicked). Documents will be provided continuously when ready.
- If notes are updated they will have an update date after the link.
Teachers



Course outline
The course outline can be found here It has page numbers to the recommended course textbook.
Please note that the times are WITHOUT the ‘academic quarter’. When it says we start at 9.00, it is 9.00 sharp (and not 9.15).
Course textbook
The recommended course textbook is ‘Measurement in Medicine’ which we recommend you buy. It costs approx. 415 DKR, and can be bought here. It can also be downloaded as an electronic book via the university library at your university (you need to log-in to get access):
Exercises
The exercises will either be provided in Word, pdf or html-format on this webpage. Answers to the exercises are activated AFTER the course and provided either as:
- Word
- html
To download the answers provided in html, click on the link and then right-click on the page and choose ‘save as’. This saves a standalone html page which can be opened in any browser.
Day 1
Lecture notes
- Introduction to questionnaires - conceptualisation & operationalisation
- Concepts in questionnaire technique & COSMIN taxonomy
- How to measure the construct - operationalisation
- Structure and design of a questionnaire study
Exercises
- Exercise 1. Alice will introduce the exercise in class
- Exercise 2. Errors in item formulation and answer categories
- Exercise 2. Answers activated after the course
Preparation
- Please read the pages in the couse textbook as outlined in the course programme. This will make it much easier to understand the lectures and exercises.
- Please read:
- Please have a look at the overview of the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties. We suggest you have it printed out and have it in front of you during the course - click here
- Please watch the vodcast on “Conceptual frameworks”. This will teach you about formative and reflective models which are important in terms of requirements for questionnaire/item development (approx. 10 min.):
Day 2
Lecture notes
- Translation & adaptation
- Introduction to the development of a new questionnaire (updated 19-10-2025)
- Gentle introduction to validity and reproducibility
- Introduction to responsiveness and interpretation
Exercises
Exercise 1. Translation and cross-cultural adaptation instructions
- Group A. For instructions click here
- Group B. For instructions click here
- Translation templates
Exercise 2. Validity and reproducibility
- Questions
- Answers activated after the course
Preparation
- Please read the pages in the couse textbook as outlined in the course programme.
- Please have a look at the overview of the COSMIN taxonomy of measurement properties. We suggest you have it printed out and have it in front of you during the course - click here
- Please watch the vodcast on “Translation and cross-cultural adaptation of a questionnaire” (approx. 14 min.):
Day 3
Morning session
Lecture notes
Exercises
Exercise 1. Questionnaire selection
- Questions
- Answers activated after the course
Preparation
- Please read the pages in the couse textbook as outlined in the course programme.
- Please watch the vodcast on “Selecting the best questionnaire” (approx. 15 min.)
- Selecting the best questionnaire in pdf
- Please read:
- Hansen A et al. Reliability and Construct Validity of the Work Rehabilitation Questionnaire Domains in Patients with Persistent Low Back Pain - click here (used in the questionnaire selection exercise)
- COSMIN guideline for systematic reviews of patient-reported outcome measures version 2.0 (2024) - click here
- Journal club:
- Journal club assignment - click here
- Article to read for the journal club: Indian version of the Neck Disability Index
- The original UK version of the NDI - click here
Afternoon session
Group work: COSMIN evaluation of the Neck Disability Index (NDI)
The afternoon will focus on the Neck Disability Index and instructions will follow on the day. The NDI (UK version) can be found here
Excel spreadsheet with solutions to the exercise:
- activated after the course
Different translations of the NDI:
- Arabic version of the NDI
- Brazilian version of the NDI
- Finnish version of the NDI
- German version of the NDI
- Malay version of the NDI
Preparation
- Read the exercise instructions and download the articles on the translations of the NDI.
The following two articles provides examples of systematic reviews: