Linking commonly used hand therapy outcome measures to individual areas of the International Classification of Functioning: A systematic review

Abstract

Study design: Systematic review.

Introduction: Identifying outcome measures that correspond to the International Classification of Functioning (ICF) provides insight into selecting appropriate outcome tools in hand therapy practice.

Purpose of the study: The objective of this study is to systematically review patient-reported outcome measures commonly used in hand therapy to determine the extent to which the content represents the biopsychosocial view of the ICF.

Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted. Studies that met inclusion criteria were identified, and outcome measures were extracted. The meaningful concept was determined for each item on the measure and linked to the most specific ICF category. Summary linkage calculations were completed.

Results: Eleven patient-reported outcomes were identified from 43 included studies. Activity and participation had the highest content coverage followed by body functions. There was linking to personal factors and not defined-disability and mental health. Environmental factors were not represented in any of the included outcome measures. The core set representation of unique codes ranged from 8.55% to 18.80% (mean: 11.97%) for the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Hand Conditions and from 30.43% to 47.83% (mean: 31.40%) for the Brief ICF Core Set for Hand Conditions. The percent representation of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Hand Conditions for unique disability ranged from 21.62% to 43.24% (mean: 20.33%) and from 62.50% to 87.50% (mean: 72.22%) for the Brief ICF Core Set for Hand Conditions.

Discussion: None of the included measures represent all categories of the ICF Core Sets for Hand Conditions.

Conclusion: Utilizing the most recent refinement rules for the linking process, this study provides comparisons of measures along with clarity of content coverage for the most commonly used tools in the practice of hand therapy.

Keywords: Hand therapy; Linking to ICF; Patient-reported outcomes.