Freddy Falez

Development of ICF core set for disability evaluation in social security

Purpose. The purpose of this paper is to report on the development of an ICF core set for functional assessment in disability claims in European social security systems. Method. A formal decision-making process was applied. First, national meetings suggested categories to be included in the core set. Thereafter, the members of EUMASS working group for ICF selected a core set based on these suggestions, in a formal voting procedure. Results. From 191 different suggestions for ICF categories given by the national meetings, 20 were selected for the core set. Five were from body functions and 15 from activities and participation. No category from environmental factors was included. Conclusion. The EUMASS working group successfully reached consensus on a core set for functional assessments in disability benefit claims. The core set is generic, and should be used by medical doctors. It is intended for evaluation of rights to long term benefits. For the assessment in short term sickness absence, return to work, and vocational rehabilitation, other core sets need to be developed. The usefulness of the ICF qualifiers for the level of functioning in disability assessment has yet to be established.

Validation of use of the International Consultation on Incontinence Questionnaire-Urinary Incontinence-Short Form (ICIQ-UI-SF) for impairment rating: A transversal retrospective study of 120 patients†‡

A urinary incontinence impairment rating must be a highly accurate, non‐invasive exploration of the condition using International Classification of Functioning (ICF)‐based assessment tools. The objective of this study was to identify the best evaluation test and to determine an impairment rating model of urinary incontinence.

Validation of the EUMASS Core Set for medical evaluation of work disability

Abstract Objective: To perform a content validation of the EUMASS Core Set across six European social insurance systems. The EUMASS Core Set contains 20 categories to describe the functional (in-) capacity of claimants for disability benefits. Methods: We performed an exploratory, cross-sectional study. We used the EUMASS Core Set, added scales to rate the relevance of the 20 categories and added additional questions concerning comprehensiveness, usefulness and sufficiency of the instrument. Medical examiners from European countries filled in this instrument in 10 consecutive claim assessments. Results: Forty-eight medical examiners in six different countries evaluated 446 claimants. The medical examiners used all categories to describe the claimants’ functional (in-) capacity. Medical examiners missed 41 different categories, often mental functions (n = 17). They rated the instrument as useful in 68.4% and as sufficient in 63.2% of the claims. Perceived usefulness varied among countries, but not among disease groups. Perceived sufficiency varied among countries and disease groups. Conclusion: The EUMASS Core Set is promising for reporting about functional (in-) capacities. It contains relevant categories for disability evaluation among countries and disease groups. Adding more mental functions might make it more applicable. Medical examiners found it useful and sufficient to evaluate functional (in-) capacity. Implications for Rehabilitation In medical reports of evaluation of work disability, reporting about functional capacity is often unstructured in free text, making the reports difficult to understand. The EUMASS Core Set contains common definitions for expressing functional capacity and is expected to support taking decisions, to improve the quality of decisions and to allow national and international comparisons. Our study suggests the EUMASS core set to be comprehensive, useful and sufficient to express functional capacity in disability evaluation.