Semin Speech Lang 2007; 28: 273-282 DOI: 10.1055/s-2007-986524
© Thieme Medical Publishers
The ICF and Dementia
Tammy Hopper1
1 Associate Professor, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

ABSTRACT

The World Health Organization's International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is a framework for describing and classifying an individual's health and health-related states. The purpose of this article is to discuss the relevance of the ICF to cognitive-communication disorders of dementia, in particular those of Alzheimer disease. These disorders are described according to the Functioning and Disability, and the Contextual Factors parts of the ICF, with a focus on assessment, coding and classification, intervention, and outcome measurement.

KEYWORDS

Dementia - Alzheimer disease - cognitive-communication disorders - ICF - speech-language pathology