ICF Core Sets

ICF Core Sets are condition- or context-specific shortlists of categories drawn from the WHO International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) so that the otherwise unwieldy classification of roughly fourteen hundred categories becomes usable in routine clinical and research practice. The full ICF, published in 2001, offers an exhaustive language for describing body functions and structures, activities and participation, and environmental factors, but applying all of it to a single patient is impractical. A core set answers the question 'which ICF categories actually matter for this condition?' by selecting a manageable subset through a formal, transparent, multi-method development process. That process combines a systematic review of the literature, an international expert survey using the Delphi technique, a qualitative study capturing the patient perspective, and a clinical cross-sectional study, whose convergent results are debated and voted at a consensus conference. The output is typically a paired structure: a comprehensive core set for multidisciplinary assessment and a brief core set for everyday clinical encounters and large studies.