Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
Original article 1
0342-5282 Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1097/MRR.0000000000000383
International classification of diseases/disorders diagnosis
and International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health activity/participation limitation among psychiatric
patients: a cross-sectional and exploratory study
Jacek Wciórka, Marta Anczewska, Piotr Jaholkowski and Piotr Świtaj
To explore the relationships between international
classification of diseases/disorders (ICD)-10 diagnoses
and International Classification of Functioning, Disability
and Health (ICF) disability dimensions – activity and
participation restriction among mental health service
users. Three hundred sixty patients from different health
services diagnosed with diverse mental disorders (ICD-
10) participated in the study. Functioning restrictions
were evaluated by use of the Mini-ICF-APP. Selected
sociodemographic and clinical variables were also
analysed. The Mini-ICF-APP scores correlated positively
with the clinical impression of disease severity and
negatively with general functioning. As independent
factors determining the Mini-ICF-APP score, regression
analysis suggests diagnosis and severity of disorder
but also contextual factors such as general functioning
and active occupation. Percentage and percentile
distributions of activity and participation restrictions in
diagnostic sections and categories revealed noticeable
variability regardless of diagnosis-related differences. The
diagnosis determines them neither in an ambiguous nor
an absolute manner. There is a need to further explore the
covariability between clinical diagnosis and ICF activity
and participation restriction, particularly in regard the
rationalization of social welfare benefits. International
Journal of Rehabilitation Research XXX: 000–000
Copyright © 2019 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights
reserved.
International Journal of Rehabilitation Research 2019, XXX:000–000
Keywords: diagnosis, functioning, mental disorders
Department of Psychiatry I, Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, Warsaw,
Poland
Correspondence to Jacek Wciórka, MD, PhD, Department of Psychiatry I,
Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology, ul, Sobieskiego 9, 02-957 Warsaw, Poland
Tel: +48 224582773; fax: +48 224582818; e-mail: wciorka@ipin.edu.pl
Received 26 June 2019 Accepted 30 September 2019
Introduction
The WHO International Classifcation of Functioning,
Disability and Health, known at the ICF (WHO, 2001),
provides a unifed and standard language for the descrip-
tion of health, functioning and disability. For a better
understanding of and action on health-related issues,
the simultaneous usage of the ICF and the international
classifcation of diseases/disorders (ICD; WHO, 1992) has
been proposed, linking disease and functioning (Baron
and Linden, 2008; Kostanjsek et al., 2011; Kohler et al.,
2012; Escorpizo et al., 2013; Selb et al., 2015). ICF appli-
cations may shed light on the interrelationship between
pathogenic and salutogenic processes (Amering and
Schmolke, 2007; Jonas et al., 2014; Nowak et al., 2016),
and thereby contribute to effective prevention, care and
rehabilitation as well as to the rationalization of social
welfare benefts (Wilmowska-Pietruszyńska and Bilski,
2012).
Particularly, in the feld of mental health, these expec-
tations refer to the continued debate as to whether and
to what extent personal (distress), clinical (disorder)
and social (disability) aspects of crises may be separated
from each other. In the feld of mental healthcare, these
aspects inevitably overlap to a greater or lesser extent
and codefne real tasks (Ustün and Kennedy, 2009, along
with comments). Studies indicate that functioning and
disability are much more strongly and extensively infu-
enced by mental disorders than somatic diseases (Reed et
al., 2009; Cabello et al., 2012; Świtaj et al., 2012; Linden
et al., 2015b). Opinions and studies indicate that in the
case of mental disorders, and not only the chronic and
recurrent ones, these associations are not as obvious as it
is assumed in the traditional medical model, giving the
decisive importance to pathogenetic determinism and
leaving aside salutogenic determinants (Amering and
Schmolke, 2007; Jonas et al., 2014; Nowak et al., 2016).
The ICF may compensate for these shortcomings in the
focus on diseases and disorders. It supplements a descrip-
tion and clinical evaluation with variables independent
of nosological categories. It enables the identifcation of
the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of health
of a person who is healthy, ill or recovering. The disability
level assesses not only the violated body structures and
functions but also available social capacity (activity), the
fulflment of social roles (participation) and the impor-
tance of the context in which a person lives.
Only a small number of attempts to use the ICF in
mental health have been undertaken in Poland to date