Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 May 31;11 Suppl 4(Suppl 4):S3.
doi: 10.1186/1471-2458-11-S4-S3.

Use of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a conceptual framework and common language for disability statistics and health information systems

Nenad Kostanjsek  1
Affiliations

Use of The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) as a conceptual framework and common language for disability statistics and health information systems

Nenad Kostanjsek. BMC Public Health. .

Abstract

A common framework for describing functional status information is needed in order to make this information comparable and of value. The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), which has been approved by all its member states, provides this common language and framework. The article provides an overview of ICF taxonomy, introduces the conceptual model which underpins ICF and elaborates on how ICF is used at population and clinical level. Furthermore, the article presents key features of the ICF tooling environment and outlines current and future developments of the classification.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Interactions between the components of ICF
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization. International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Geneva: World Health Organization; 2001.
    1. World Health Organization. International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH) Geneva: World Health Organization; 1980.
    1. World Health Organization. WHO Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). Wave 1 Individual Questionnaire - Set A. 2009. http://www who int/healthinfo/systems/sage
    1. Kessler RC, Üstün TB. The WHO World Mental Health Surveys: Global Perspectives on the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2008.
    1. WHS-Collaborating Group. The World Health Surveys. In: Murray CJL, Evans DB, editor. Health Systems Performance Assessment: Debates, Methods and Empiricism. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2003.

Publication types

MeSH terms