Aspects of functioning and environmental factors in medical work capacity evaluations of persons with chronic widespread pain and low back pain can be represented by a combination of applicable ICF Core Sets.

Background: Medical work capacity evaluations play a key role in social security schemes because they usually form the basis for eligibility decisions regarding disability benefits. However, the evaluations are often poorly standardized and lack transparency as decisions on work capacity are based on a claimant's disease rather than on his or her functional capacity. A comprehensive and consistent illustration of a claimant's lived experience in relation to functioning, applying the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the ICF Core Sets (ICF-CS), potentially enhances transparency and standardization of work capacity evaluations.

Nurses' intervention goal categories for persons with spinal cord injury based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health: an international Delphi survey.

Aim: To examine whether the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health can be used as standard language to express intervention goals on the part of nurses caring for persons with spinal cord injury.

Background: This classification is multipurpose and is designed to organize a wide range of health-related information that can be used in any healthcare context and especially by interdisciplinary teams.

Design: A three-round, consensus-building, electronic-mail survey using the Delphi technique.

Design of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study.

The overall goal of the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study (SwiSCI) is to gain a better understanding of how to support functioning, health maintenance, and quality-of-life of persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) along the continuum of care, in the community, and along their life span. The purpose of this study was to present the SwiSCI study design. SwiSCI is composed of three complementary pathways and will include Swiss persons 16 yrs or older who have diagnoses of traumatic or nontraumatic SCI.

Category specification and measurement instruments in large spinal cord injury studies: a comparison using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health as a reference.

The objective of this paper was to examine whether large longitudinal studies have comprehensively covered the functioning of persons with spinal cord injuries (SCI), using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as reference framework. First, the literature was reviewed to select relevant studies. Second, category specifications measured in the included studies were linked to the ICF and compared with the Brief ICF Core Sets for postacute and chronic situations.

How to measure what matters: development and application of guiding principles to select measurement instruments in an epidemiologic study on functioning.

The purpose of this article was to describe and to apply a comprehensive set of guiding principles in the selection of measurement instruments for a longitudinal epidemiologic study focusing on functioning using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) as reference framework. Based on the literature, the ICF linkage rules, and the definition of ICF categories to be measured, the following guiding principles for selecting measurement instruments are defined: redundancy, efficiency, level of detail of information, comparability, feasibility, and truth and discrimination. Examples illustrate that the application of guiding principles allows for a systematic and reasoned process of measurement instrument selection and thus offers a potential solution for the multifaceted challenges that one encounters in the selection of measurement instruments.

Setting up a cohort study on functioning: deciding what to measure.

The objectives of this article were to (1) answer the question of what to measure in a cohort study in which the main focus is the understanding of functioning over time for a specific population and to (2) describe the process of determining what to measure using a theory-informed selection of domains of functioning based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). The Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study, a cohort study being carried out in Switzerland for a population of persons with spinal cord injury, was used as an example. A set of domains for the Swiss Spinal Cord Injury Cohort Study was identified demonstrating the application of the methodology.

Part 2. Identification of problems in functioning of persons with sleep disorders from the health professional perspective using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a reference: a worldwide expert survey.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to identify relevant aspects of functioning as well as related environmental factors from the perspective of health professionals worldwide experienced in treating persons with any kind of (primary) sleep disorder.

Methods: A structured email survey was sent to 174 selected international experts. Using six open-ended questions, physicians, nurses, therapists, technicians, biologists and psychologists were asked to indicate the problems in functioning experienced by individuals with (primary) sleep disorders including contextual factors like environmental and personal factors which influence functioning.

Systematic literature review on ICF from 2001 to 2009: its use, implementation and operationalisation.

Purpose: To present a systematic literature review on the state of the art of the utilisation of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) since its release in 2001.

Method: The search was conducted through EMBASE, MEDLINE and PsychInfo covering the period between 2001 and December 2009. Papers were included if ICF was mentioned in title or abstract.

Patients' functioning as predictor of nursing workload in acute hospital units providing rehabilitation care: a multi-centre cohort study.

Background: Management decisions regarding quality and quantity of nurse staffing have important consequences for hospital budgets. Furthermore, these management decisions must address the nursing care requirements of the particular patients within an organizational unit. In order to determine optimal nurse staffing needs, the extent of nursing workload must first be known.

Combined application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and the NANDA-International Taxonomy II.

Aim: This paper presents a discussion of the conceptual and practical relationships between the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health and the NANDA-International Taxonomy II for nursing diagnoses, and their use in nursing practice.

Background: The ICF provides a common classification framework for all healthcare professionals, including nurses. Nursing care plans can be broadly based on NANDA-I taxonomies.

Does the Comprehensive International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Core Set for rheumatoid arthritis capture nursing practice? A Delphi survey.

Background: The "Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)" is an application of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and represents the typical spectrum of problems in functioning of patients with RA.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to validate this ICF Core Set from the perspective of nurses.

Method: Nurses experienced in RA treatment were asked about the patients' problems, patients' resources and aspects of environment that nurses take care of in a three-round survey using the Delphi technique.

Identification of ICF categories relevant for nursing in the situation of acute and early post-acute rehabilitation.

Background: The recovery of patients after an acute episode of illness or injury depends both on adequate medical treatment and on the early identification of needs for rehabilitation care. The process of early beginning rehabilitation requires efficient communication both between health professionals and the patient in order to effectively address all rehabilitation goals. The currently used nursing taxonomies, however, are not intended for interdisciplinary use and thus may not contribute to efficient rehabilitation management and an optimal patient outcome.

[Development and use of the ICF from the nursing point of view--a position statement of the German speaking working group "ICF and Nursing"].

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a comprehensive and internationally acknowledged framework for the description of human functional health, which covers all aspects of health and some health-related elements of well-being. The ICF is part of the classification family of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and can be used by different health care disciplines as well as for different purposes. In order to promote the discussion about ICF within the nursing profession, the German speaking working group "ICF and Nursing" developed a position statement that critically reflects both the potentials and the restrictions of the ICF for use in nursing care, particularly for diagnostical purposes.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by geriatric patients in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility.

Purpose: To describe functioning and health of elderly patients in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Methods: Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of elderly patients requiring rehabilitation in an early post-acute rehabilitation facility. The second-level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Purpose: To describe functioning and health of patients with neurological conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities and to identify the most common problems using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF).

Methods: Cross-sectional survey in a convenience sample of patients with neurological conditions requiring rehabilitation in early post-acute facilities. The second-level categories of the ICF were used to collect information on patients' problems.

Identification of relevant ICF categories by health professionals in the acute hospital.

Purpose: To identify the most relevant problems of patients in the acute hospital in the view of health professionals using focus groups followed by a Delphi process.

Methods: Focus group and Delphi methodology were applied. The focus groups were conducted at three university hospitals.

The ICF categories identified in nursing interventions administered to neurological patients with post-acute rehabilitation needs.

Purpose: The objectives of this study were (1) to determine whether the ICF covers the goals of nursing interventions and (2) to identify the areas of functioning, disability and health most relevant to nursing practice of neurological patients with early post-acute rehabilitation needs.

Methods: This cross-sectional study on nursing interventions is part of a larger multicentric cross-sectional study describing functioning, disability and health. The nursing interventions were recorded by nurses in charge of the patient.

Systematic review of measures and their concepts used in published studies focusing on rehabilitation in the acute hospital and in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Purpose: To identify outcome measures cited in published studies focusing on rehabilitation in the acute hospital and in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities, and to identify and quantify the concepts contained in these measures using the ICF as a reference.

Methods: Electronic searches of Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Pedro and the Cochrane Library from 1997 to March 2002 were carried out. In a first step, abstracts of the retrieved studies were checked and data on the outcome measures and certain characteristics of the included studies were extracted.

ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Purpose: The aim of this consensus process was to decide on a first version of the ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in early post-acute rehabilitation facilities.

Methods: The ICF Core Set development involved a formal decision-making and consensus process integrating evidence gathered from preliminary studies including focus groups of health professionals, a systematic review of the literature and empiric data collection from patients.

Results: Seventeen experts selected a total of 84 second-level categories.

ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in the acute hospital.

Purpose: The aim of this consensus process was to decide on a first version of the ICF Core Set for patients with cardiopulmonary conditions in the acute hospital.

Methods: The ICF Core Set development involved a formal decision-making and consensus process, integrating evidence gathered from preliminary studies including focus groups of health professionals, a systematic review of the literature and empiric data collection from patients.

Results: Twenty-two experts selected a total of 48 second-level categories.