Validation of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Stroke by exploring the patient's perspective on functioning in everyday life: a qualitative study.

Abstract

International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core sets are short procedures to record and provide information on health. However, further validation is needed. The aim of this study was to validate the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for stroke by exploring the patient's living at home and receiving outpatient rehabilitation perspective on functioning in everyday life. Qualitative interviews of 22 patients with previous stroke in Finland were analyzed using the content analysis method: functional concepts that described the participants' perspective on functioning in everyday life were extracted from the interview transcripts and linked to ICF categories using ICF linking rules. Extracted functional concepts from 372 meaning units were linked to 115 of the 166 categories included in the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for stroke and to six additional ICF categories. Thirty-eight concepts could not be linked to the ICF categories. Sixty-eight percent of the second-level ICF categories in the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for stroke were validated. In total, 28 of 36 categories added to the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for stroke from the Core Sets for patients with neurological conditions in the acute and early postacute phases were not confirmed in this sample of individuals with stroke living in their homes.