title: New approaches to understanding the impact of musculoskeletal conditions.
abstract: The approval of the new international classification of functioning, disability and health (ICF; formerly ICIDH) (WHO, 2001a) by the World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2001 is a landmark event for medicine and society. With the ICF, patients' functioning, with its components body functions and structures, activities and participation, became a central perspective in medicine. The objective of this paper is to outline how the ICF can serve as a new global language of functioning and health and hence become a new approach for our understanding of the impact of musculoskeletal conditions.
authors.affiliation: ICF Research Branch of the WHO CC FIC (DIMDI), IMBK-Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Alarcos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cieza
authors.forename: Gerold
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stucki
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000145:classification*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D006801:Humans; D012216:Rheumatic Diseases / Q000503:physiopathology*; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile