Development of ICF Core Sets for patients with chronic conditions.

Objective: The objective of the ICF Core Sets project is the development of internationally agreed Brief ICF Core Sets and Comprehensive ICF Core Sets.

Methods: The methods to develop both ICF Core Sets, the Comprehensive ICF Core Set and the Brief ICF Core Set, involved a formal decision-making and consensus process integrating evidence gathered from preliminary studies and expert opinion.

Results: The results regarding the development of the ICF Core Sets for 12 health conditions (chronic widespread pain, low back pain, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus, obesity, obstructive pulmonary diseases, breast cancer, depression, and stroke) are presented in this supplement.

Conclusion: Both, the Brief ICF Core Sets and the Comprehensive ICF Core Sets are preliminary and need to be tested in the coming years based on a standardized protocol in close cooperation with the ICF research branch of the WHO FIC CC (DIMDI) in Munich and the CAS team at WHO. The final goals are valid and globally agreed tools to be used in clinical practice, research and health statistics.