The ICIDH: health problems in a medical and social perspective

The ICIDH is a classification of health problems. Impairments, disabilities, and handicaps are to be considered as three different interpretations of a person's health state. Use of the ICIDH is indicated when a person's health problems need to be described at a particular point in time, both in medical and in social terms, i.e. including their significance for the daily life functioning of the patient. It is argued that the ICIDH is relevant to health problems other than just those for disabled and for chronically ill. The ICIDH subtitle and the model explaining the relations between disease and impairment-disability-handicap do not reflect a clear notion of the perspective of the ICIDH on health problems. An overview of ICIDH applications shows that the ICIDH is being used not so much for the evaluation of the health-care system but for many other purposes, among these the understanding of therapeutic activities.