THE UTILITY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION OF FUNCTIONING, DISABILITY AND HEALTH IN ASSESSING PARKINSON'S DISEASE

To screen and identify International classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core sets for Parkinson's disease and make a dedicated and comprehensive assessment tool for Parkinson's disease. 100 patients with Parkinson's disease were involved in this study. The ICF checklist was designed as a questionnaire. Information about them was collected by ICF-checklist. Each items frequency was calculated and those items with frequencies more than 30% were selected as the first ICF core set for PD. 8 doctors and 5 therapists were consulted. Items with frequency more than 50% were chosen as the second level ICF core set for PD. The two results (termed ICF core sets I and II) were integrated with the initial ICF core sets for PD and sent to 42 experts in the area of neurological rehabilitation. Items with a frequency more than 80% were chosen as the final ICF core set for PD. A total of 25 ICF items were included in the ICF core set for PD patients. There were 8 body functions items; 1 body structures items; 9 activity and participation items and 7 environmental items involved. The ICF core set for PD was identified in this study. The selected items covered content broader than other common assessment scales. The result is a comprehensive description of PD.