[Development and validation of BECAD. An instrument derived from the international classification of functioning,...

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) provides a useful theoretical framework for the rehabilitation of chronic diseases with complex problems that require interdisciplinary teams. The aim of this study was the development of a set of scales based on ICF for treatment planning and outcome assessment.

A group of experts conducted several changes of the elements from the Activities and Participation ICF chapter. Tasks and questions were designed and then, submitted to review from another group of experts. An online application was designed. The sample consisted of 116 participants, 34 of them with brain injury, 38 with severe mental disorders and 44 controls. Trained psychologists and other health professionals administered the scales. Exploratory factor analysis of the scales "Learning and applying knowledge and general tasks and demands", "Self-care" and "Mobility" besides reliability coefficients, MANCOVAs and regression analyses were performed.

In the scale "Learning and applying knowledge and general tasks and demands" three factors have been extracted, which explain 52,58% of variance. In the scale "Mobility" two factors have been extracted, explaining 76,91 % of variance; and in "Self-care", another two factors were extracted, explaining 77,60 % of variance. MANCOVAs showed significant differences between the three groups in all seven new factors. All factors presented coefficients between 0.91 and 0.99.

These results showed appropriate metric properties of the new scales, whose factors discriminate between groups and have a high reliability.