Abstract:
The endorsement of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) by the 54th World Health Assembly in May 2001 mirrors an important shift in the priorities by the World Health Organization (WHO). Although WHO has traditionally focused on infection control and mortality reduction WHO now also emphasizes the importance of reducing the burden associated with non-fatal health conditions. WHO has developed the ICF to provide a unified, international and standardized language for describing and classifying health and health-related domains and hence to provide a common framework for health outcome measurement. With the approval of the ICF the WHO member states are now called upon to implement the ICF in the health, education, labour and social sector. The ICF has found immediate interest in the health sciences with currently more than 600 ICF related publications reflecting the interest, relevance, and impact of its application in health research worldwide.
The ICF categories are the discrete, meaningful, universally shared and understood elements which allow users to comprehensively classify and measure functioning, disability and health of individuals and populations. They are thus the building blocks for the construction of ICF-based practical tools such as the ICF Checklist and the ICF Core Sets as well as clinical measurement instruments such as the ICF Core Set Indices and self-reported measurement instruments such as the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS II).
While ICF-based practical tools such as the ICF Core Sets allow the classification of functioning states, clinical and self-reported measurement instruments allow the measurement and hence the estimation of functioning status or aspects of it in relation to specific purposes. Vice versa, the ICF categories serve as meaningful and universal reference units for reporting and communicating results of measurements of aspects of functioning made with any measurement instrument from the infinite universe of measurement instruments including health-status measures or health-related quality of life measures.
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Abbreviations
- CAT:
-
Computer Adaptive Testing
- CTS:
-
Classification, Terminology and Standards
- DAR:
-
Disability and Rehabilitation
- DIMDI:
-
Deutsches Institut für Medizinische Dokumentation und Information
- FDRG:
-
Functioning and Disability Reference Group
- ICD:
- ICF:
-
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health
- ICF-CY:
-
International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth
- ICIDH:
-
International Classification of Impairment, Disabilities and Handicaps
- ICIDH-2:
-
International Classification of Impairment, Disabilities and Handicaps-2
- ILO:
-
International Labour Organization
- ISPRM:
-
International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine
- NACC:
-
North American Collaboration Center
- NHP:
-
Nottingham health profile
- OMERACT:
-
Outcome Measures in Theumatoid Arthritis Clinical Trials
- SF-36:
-
Medical Outcomes Study 36-item short-form health survey
- SNOMED:
-
Systemized Nomenclature of Medicine
- UN:
-
United Nations
- UNCESCO:
-
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
- UNSTAT:
-
United Nations Statistics Division
- VAS:
-
Visual Analog Scale
- WHA:
-
World Health Assembly
- WHO FIC CC Network:
-
World Health Organization Network of the Collaboration Centers for the Family of International Classifications
- WHO:
-
World Health Organization
- WHODAS II:
-
World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank Prof. Jerome Bickenbach and Dr. Somnath Chatterij from WHO for the inspiring discussions of the ICF and related concepts and Dr. Thomas Ewert, Gisela Immich and Susanne Stucki for their help in the preparation of the manuscript.
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Stucki, G., Kostanjsek, N., Cieza, A. (2010). The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: A Tool to Classify and Measure Functioning. In: Preedy, V.R., Watson, R.R. (eds) Handbook of Disease Burdens and Quality of Life Measures. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-78665-0_1
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