Article

This study examined whether the mental representations of people with
osteoarthritis (OA) were consistent with the International Classification of
Functioning Disability and Health (ICF) model. METHODS: A geographical cohort of
202 people with OA about to have joint replacement surgery completed postal
questionnaires. Mental representations were measured by asking participants what
they were hoping for from their joint replacement. Two expert judges classified
these illness representations to the main ICF constructs of Impairment (I),
Activity Limitation (A) and Participation Restriction (P). RESULTS: There was
strong agreement between the expert judges. There were a similar number of
illness representations for each of the ICF constructs. The primary biomedical
route of the ICF model was suggested by the ordering of the participants' illness
representations i.e. I to A to P. CONCLUSIONS: The mental representations of
people with OA were consistent with the ICF theoretical framework with all three
ICF constructs of importance. It appeared that people with OA implicitly apply a
biomedical causal model of disability, suggesting that treatments and
interventions aimed at reducing impairment may only affect P indirectly, through
A. Additionally, the methods provide a novel way of exploring the potential
causal relationships between constructs of the ICF model.

Langue : ANGLAIS