International Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
Open Access

Abstract

Associations between ICF Categories Found Amongst Participants in Vocational Rehabilitation Evaluation Due to Chronic Musculoskeletal Disorders: Turku ICF Study: A Short Communication

Mikhail Saltychev, Aila Kinnunen Licsc and Katri Laimi

Purpose: To investigate associations between ICF-categories found amongst participants in vocational rehabilitation evaluation due to chronic musculoskeletal disorders. Methods: The descriptions of functional limitations were retrospectively identified for 32 patients. The original vocational rehabilitation evaluation was conducted by a multi-professional team in an out-patient clinic of a university hospital. The descriptions obtained were converted to ICF second-level categories. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated for ICF-categories appearing ≥ 10 times in the study sample. Results: In the study sample, 84 different ICF second-level categories were identified (average 18 codes/subject, range 9–25). Of them, 18 categories were observed amongst ≥10 participants, comprising 17 statistically significant correlation-pairs. Of them, positive association of moderate strength was found for energy, sleep, attention, touch functions, joint mobility, muscle power, doing housework, vocational training, remunerative employment, dressing changing and maintaining body position, and lifting and carrying objects. Conclusions: During vocational rehabilitation evaluation, several moderate associations between different functional limitations were found. Identifying and describing such associations in uniform terms of ICF may improve the preciseness and comparability of vocational rehabilitation evaluation.