Interactive computer program for self-distributed medical questionnaire in a population health screening

The questionnaire is an important element of a medical screening investigation, just as important as the biometrical screening tests. There are several difficulties in realizing interactive computer programs for such tasks. In the present report, we describe the design, operation and results of an interactive computer program for self-distributed medical questionnaire in which the screening subjects are informed and instructed on the terminal routines, and answer, check, confirm and record the questions direct in the computer terminals by means of simple keyboard functions. This program was possible to construct as an integrated component of the interactive computer system monitoring our multiphasic health screening in a standard minicomputer environment.