Article

The aim of this study was to investigate disability in community-dwelling
individuals aged 65 years and over using the International Classification of
Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) checklist and the World Health
Organization Disability Assessment Schedule II (WHODAS-II) and to compare how
these two ICF-based instruments measured disability in an attempt to show the
utility of the ICF checklist in a field setting to describe disability. In this
population-based, cross-sectional and descriptive study, data on the ICF
checklist and the WHODAS-II were collected from 200 selected participants who
lived in a small town. Both the ICF checklist and the WHODAS-II identified a
considerable proportion of the elderly with a disability in life areas relevant
to cognition and domestic life in a similar manner, the proportions ranging from
52.5 to 68.5%. However, the proportions of those with a disability showed a
statistically significant difference in the domains of the two instruments
relevant to mobility, self-care, and participation in society. Although the
absolute intrarater agreement for matching items of the instruments ranged from
40.5 to 87.5%, kappa statistics showed slight to moderate agreement for the
original ICF qualifier and mostly moderate agreement with reduced response
options. ICF qualifiers were found to discriminate between the WHODAS-II domain
scores in those with no, mild-moderate and severe-complete difficulty. The
disparity between the data obtained from the ICF checklist and the WHODAS-II in
some domains may have resulted from differing interpretations of the items of the
ICF checklist, lower reliability of some of the items, and the current feature of
the qualifiers used without any adaptations. The ICF checklist has the potential
to be used in a field setting, provided that some modifications are made.

Langue : ANGLAIS