Validation of international classification of functioning, disability, and health (ICF) core sets for early postacute rehabilitation facilities - Comparisons with three other functional measures

Objective: Shortlists of International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health OCF) categories, ICF Core Sets, have been developed as reference standards for clinical practice and research. The objective of this study was to validate the ICF Core Sets for early postacute rehabilitation facilities against the measures most commonly used in early postacute rehabilitation, the FIM (TM) instrument, the Functional Assessment Measure, and the Barthel index. Design: Linking study matching the concepts of three commonly used outcome measures to corresponding ICF categories. Results: Corresponding ICF categories could be found for all of the items of the FIM (TM) instrument + Functional Assessment Measure and Barthel index. The 40 items of these three measures were linked to 33 different ICF categories. Four items could be linked to ICF categories that were not part of any of the Postacute ICF Core Sets. Conclusions: The Postacute ICIF Core Sets cover the concepts of the most frequently used measures in early postacute rehabilitation. Yet, many aspects of human functioning are not measured by the FIM (TM) instrument + Functional Assessment Measure and the Barthel index. If this information is considered relevant, these items would have to be added by using supplementary measures. Our comparison demonstrates the benefit of using a common language when comparing items using different wordings and concepts.