ICF and ICD codes provide a standard language of disability in young children.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to examine the utility of a hierarchical algorithm incorporating codes from the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health--ICF (WHO, 2001) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases-ICD (WHO, 1994) to classify reasons for eligibility of young children in early intervention.


METHODS
The database for this study was a nationally representative enrollment sample of more than 5,500 children in a longitudinal study of early intervention. Reasons for eligibility were reviewed and matched to the closest ICF or ICD codes under one of four major categories (Body Functions/Structures, Activities/Participation, Health Conditions, and Environmental Factors).


RESULTS
The average number of reasons for eligibility provided per child was 1.5, resulting in a population summary exceeding 100%. A total of 305 ICF and ICD codes were used with most (77%) of the children having codes in the category of Body Function/Structures. Forty-one percent of the sample had codes of Health Conditions, whereas the proportions with codes in the Activities/Partipication and Environmental Categories were 10 and 5%, respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
The results demonstrate that ICD and ICF can be jointly used as a common language to document disability characteristics of children in early intervention.
School of Education, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina, CB #8185, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-8185, USA.
Rune J
RJ
Simeonsson
Anita A
AA
Scarborough
Kathleen M
KM
Hebbeler
D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000465:Algorithms; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002658:Developmental Disabilities / Q000175:diagnosis*; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D004777:Environment; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D018579:Patient Selection