The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: Contemporary Literature Overview.

Abstract

This article reviews the literature from the 3 years since the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health's (ICF's) endorsement, focusing on those articles that discuss (a) what the ICF means and how it can be used; (b) the general utility of the ICF for specific fields, such as nursing, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and audiology; (c) examples of applications for classification in particular disorders, such as chronic health conditions, neuromusculoskeletal conditions, cognitive disorders, mental disorders, sensory disorders, and primary and secondary conditions in children; (d) uses of the ICF to recode prior work across multiple surveys and across country coding schemes on disability-related national survey items; and (e) governmental uses of the ICF in the United States and selected countries abroad. Future directions needed to effectively implement the ICF across rehabilitation policy, research, and practice are discussed.This article reviews the literature in psychology and health and human services, and rehabilitation more generally, from the 3 years since the endorsement of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). For this review, we narrowed our searches to articles focused on clinical research or specific implementations of the Bruyère , VanLooy, & Peterson The ICF: Contemporary Literature Overview ICF. Most available articles on the ICF discuss its utility for specific groups or particular research areas. The overview of current literature presented here is not exhaustive but rather illustrative of current applications of the ICF to research and practice.Our review suggests that the actual application of the ICF is as yet somewhat limited because the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsement is so recent; the earliest references using the ICF correspond with the WHO's 2001 endorsement. Standardized application of the ICF in North America has yet to be realized in anticipation of the release of the clinical implementation manual (see Reed et al., 2005); thus, it is not surprising to find limited research on clinical implementation of the ICF. From our review of the literature and of unpublished reports, it seems clear that the ICF is being used in a preliminary fashion to inform conceptual frameworks in research and for recoding data from other health classifications. Recently completed and ongoing research has undoubtedly not yet been published.In this review, we cluster articles by the following areas: (a) what the ICF means and how it can be used; (b) general utility of the ICF for specific fields, such as nursing, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and audiology; (c) examples of applications for classification in particular disorders, such as chronic health conditions, neuromusculoskeletal conditions, cognitive disorders, mental disorders, sensory disorders, and primary and secondary conditions in children; (d) uses of the ICF to recode prior work across multiple surveys and across country coding...

Introduction to Demand-Side Factors Related to Employment of People with Disabilities

“…The World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) model has gained wide acceptance among international rehabilitation health researchers and professionals as a framework that can be used to support a systematic approach for understanding chronic illness and disability across cultures [1]. One of the emphases of the ICF model is related to the effect of environmental factors on full community participation of people with disabilities in all aspects of life including employment.…”

(Re)constructing Myself: the process of transition to motherhood for women with a disability

“…More importantly, the framework acknowledged that the environment was an influencing variable that assisted or hindered the individual's participation in activities and society in general. 27 Its development and introduction symbolised a paradigm shift from the biomedical model towards an integrative biopsychosocial model of disability (Brandt and Pope 1997, WHO 2001, Ustun et al 2003, Bruyere et al 2005 The entire provisions of this classification framework can be read in its totality at WHO (1993) ICIDH: International Classification Of Impairments, Disabilities And Handicap. Available: http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/en.…”

Using the ICF and psychological models of behavior to predict mobility limitations.

“…The ICF is currently used primarily as a taxonomy of health rather than an explanatory theory or model (Bruyere, Van Looy, & Peterson, 2005). Yet the ICF identifies reciprocal relationships between the constructs within it, which suggest predictive relations between those constructs.…”