Introduction to the international classification of functioning disability and health – ICF – in the context of vestibular rehabilitation

Abstract

Vestibular rehabilitation focuses at decreasing the impact of symptoms, such as vertigo dizziness and imbalance have on people's daily life and their role in society. The international Classification of Functioning Disability and Health – ICF offers a unified and standard language and framework for describing health and health related states. The ICF aims at facilitating communication information about health, like functioning and disability. For this purpose the ICF has a systematic coding scheme for health data with more than 1400 categories. The big number of categories is impractical to apply in a specific area like vestibular disorders. Therefore a narrowing down to the relevant categories in a comprehensive core set for vertigo (100 categories) and a brief core set (29 categories) were developed. The purpose of this article is to reflect on the potential use of ICF in vestibular rehabilitation.