Results of the ICF core sets for chronic widespread pain in women with fibromyalgia in Brazil

Abstract

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) was developed by the World Health Organization to standardize the terminology used to describe disabling situations. The ICF core set for chronic widespread pain (CWP) is a resource derived from the ICF that systematizes and speeds up the functioning description of persons with CWP, with the objective of supplying information for public health reports and to guide rehabilitation interventions. The present study aimed at describing the results of the use of the ICF core set for CWP in a sample of 29 female patients with fibromyalgia that finished the multidisciplinary rehabilitation program. The core set categories in which 30% or more of the patients were considered without problems were classified as “non-relevant” for the description of functioning in people with this health condition. In all, 58.2% of the categories of the core set were classified as “nonrelevant”, corresponding to 43.5% of the body functions, 51.8% of the activities and participations and 68.8% of environmental factors. These findings might have been strongly influenced by the fact that the patients were pre-selected for participating in group activities, which presupposes better emotional and interpersonal relationship conditions. The fact that they had finished a therapeutic program with group psychotherapy and physical conditioning activities might also have favored the performance in psychological activities and functioning as well as relationship and several physical activities. Although these findings show an unfavorable result for the validation of the ICF core set for CWP, the characteristics of the studied sample do not allow its generalization.