Laying the foundation for a core set of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for community-dwelling adults aged 75 years and above in general practice: a study protocol

INTRODUCTION: With the medical focus on disease, the problem of overdiagnosis inevitably increases with ageing. Considering the functional health of patients might help to discriminate between necessary and unnecessary medicine. The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is an internationally recognised tool for describing functional health. However, it is too detailed to be used in primary care practices. Consequently, the aim of this study is to identify relevant codes for an ICF core set for community-dwelling older adults (75 years and above) in primary care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The study will follow the methodology proposed by the ICF Research Branch to identify relevant concepts from different perspectives: (1) Research perspective: A systematic review of studies focusing on functional health in old age will be conducted in different databases. Relevant concepts will be extracted from the publications. (2) Patients’ perspective: Relevant areas of functioning and disability will be identified conducting qualitative interviews and focus groups with community-dwelling older persons. The interviews will be transcribed verbatim and analysed using the documentary method of interpretation. (3) Experts’ perspective: An online survey with open-ended questions will be conducted. Answers will be analysed using the qualitative content analysis of Mayring. (4) Clinical perspective: A cross-sectional empirical study will be performed to assess the health status of community-dwelling older adults using the extended ICF checklist and other measurement tools. Relevant concepts identified in each study will be linked to ICF categories resulting in four preliminary core sets. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval for the study was obtained (90_17B). All participants will provide written informed consent. Data will be pseudonymised for analysis. Results will be disseminated by conference presentations and journal publications. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: Projektdatenbank Versorgungsforschung Deutschland: VfD_17_003833, Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT03384732 and PROSPERO: CRD42017067784.