International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health categories explored for self-rated participation in Swedish adolescents and adults with a mild intellectual disability

Abstract

Objective: To explore internal consistency and correlations between perceived ability, performance and perceived importance in a preliminary selection of self-reported items representing the activity/participation component of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF). Design: Structured interview study. Subjects: Fifty-five Swedish adolescents and adults with a mild intellectual disability. Methods: Questions about perceived ability, performance and perceived importance were asked on the basis of a 3-grade Likert-scale regarding each of 68 items representing the 9 ICF domains of activity/participation. Results: Internal consistency for perceived ability (Cronbach?s alpha for all 68 items): 0. 95 (values for each domain varied between 0. 57 and 0. 85), for performance: 0. 86 (between 0. 27 and 0. 66), for perceived importance: 0. 84 (between 0. 27 and 0. 68). Seventy-two percent of the items showed correlations > 0. 5 (mean = 0. 59) for performance vs perceived importance, 41% > 0. 5 (mean = 0. 47) for perceived ability vs performance and 12% > 0. 5 (mean = 0. 28) for perceived ability vs perceived importance. Conclusion: Measures of performance and perceived importance may have to be based primarily on their estimated clinical relevance for describing aspects of the ICF participation concept. With a clinimetric approach, parts of the studied items and domains may be used to investigate factors related to different patterns and levels of participation, and outcomes of rehabilitation.