Utility of the Early Delay and Disabilities Code Set for Exploring the Linkage Between ICF-CY and Assessment Reports for Children With Developmental Delay

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) offers a universal language of codes to document childhood functioning. The ICF-CY Code Set for Infants with Early Delay and Disabilities (EDD Code Set) has been developed to facilitate the practical application of the ICF for children. The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the EDD Code Set by exploring the linkage between ICF and children's assessment reports. We reviewed 30 Comprehensive Assessment Reports (CAR) for children with developmental delay (DD), aged 9-34 months in a joint evaluation center. Meaningful concepts in compulsory and supplementary sections of the CAR were identified and linked to the EDD Code Set. Linkage was measured by (a) number of linked codes and (b) average of code-only and code-with-qualifier percentages. Content in the CAR was linked to 72 of the 82 EDD codes with more codes linked from the supplementary (71) than the compulsory section (58). The largest proportion of linked codes was activities and participation (85%). The EDD Code Set can be used to examine the ICF linkage of pediatric assessment reports and guide future development or revision of pediatric documentation and participation-based intervention.