Content Validity of the Comprehensive ICF Core Set for Children with Cerebral Palsy Aged 0-6 Years: Iranian Occupational Therapists Perspective

OBJECTIVES: Comprehensive ICF Core Set of cerebral palsy (CP) includes a set of functions of children with CP has been created recently. This study determined the content validity of this version based on Iranian Occupational Therapists’ perspectives to explore whether the ICF Core Sets for CP include the areas of function of CP in Occupational Therapy practice. MATERIALS & METHODS: This qualitative study conducted from Feb 2015 to Apr 2016 in Tehran, Iran. Experts were the academic staffs selected through convenience sampling. Content validity of comprehensive ICF-Core Set of CP with 135 ICF categories was done by them. Delphi survey was used for generating consensus on the final version. Participants were 50 clinical Occupational Therapists invited via email from across Iran. An agreement of 75% was considered as the cut-off for inclusion of each code-category. RESULTS: About 60% of the code–categories of comprehensive version of ICF Core Set of CP were approved by Occupational Therapists. In the final version, 82 code-categories were listed that included 21 code-categories for Body Functions, 40 for Activity/Participation, and 21 for Environmental Factors. CONCLUSION: The validity of the Iranian ICF Core Set for children with CP aged 0–6 yr was supported by Iranian Occupational Therapists. It could be the basis for evaluation of this population in Occupational Therapy.