Questionnaires in clinical and public health research
Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at University of Copenhagen
This is a generic course. This means that the course is reserved for PhD students at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences at UCPH.
Anyone can apply for the course, but if you are not a PhD student at the Graduate School, you will be placed on the waiting list until enrollment deadline. After the enrolment deadline, available seats will be allocated to the waiting list.
The course is free of charge for PhD students at Danish universities (except Copenhagen Business School), and for PhD students at NorDoc member faculties. All other participants must pay the course fee
Learning objectives
A student who has met the objectives of the course will be able to:
1. Know the basic principles for questionnaire development and validation.
2. Develop, validate, apply, and analyze a simple questionnaire.
3. Evaluate the quality of a questionnaire presented in a medical article.
Content
1. The initial stages of questionnaire development: Problem formulation, identification of key concepts, conceptualisation, variable definition.
2. Questionnaire development: Principles for item development.
3. Multi-item scales: Rationale, construction, and basic principles.
4. Testing and validation of questionnaires: Pre-testing and cognitive interviewing techniques. Principles and methods related to content, construct, and criterion validity and reliability.
5. Development of questionnaires vs. use of standardized questionnaires: advantages and disadvantages and how to combine approaches.
6. Overview of psychometric methods based on classical test theory and modern psychometric methods (differential item functioning, item response models).
7. Conducting a good questionnaire study: practical aspects, data collection, and strategy.
8. Analysing the data, dealing with missing data, reporting results.
Participants
Ph.D. students working with questionnaires in clinical and public health research projects.
Relevance to graduate programmes
The course is relevant to PhD students from the following graduate programmes at the Graduate School of Health and Medical Sciences, UCPH:
All graduate programmes
Language
Danish or English if required by non-Danish participants
Form
Lectures, group work, discussions, exercises (total 5 days, 30 lessons).
Course director
Professor, consultant Mogens Grønvold, MD, DMSci, Department of Public Health, UCPH and Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine, Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg Hospital, mold@sund.ku.dk
Teachers
Professor, consultant Mogens Grønvold, and 3-4 experienced colleagues who have all worked with development and validation of questionnaires
Dates
2 - 6 February 2026
Course location
CSS, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Registration
Please register before 2 January 2026
Expected frequency
Annually
Seats to PhD students from other Danish universities will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis and according to the applicable rules. Applications from other participants will be considered after the last day of enrolment.
Note: All applicants are asked to submit invoice details in case of no-show, late cancellation or obligation to pay the course fee (typically non-PhD students). If you are a PhD student, your participation in the course must be in agreement with your principal supervisor.