Healthy Aging across Four Countries: Measuring Functioning and Aging in the Community

One objective of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) is to create a “common language” for measuring and monitoring functioning. This proposed pilot project begins the process of core sets development of profiles of aging populations living in the community across different countries. The four countries included in the study are Canada, France, Japan, and the U.S. There are both urban and rural populations with some variation in level of education and income. In each site there is a population available for a longitudinal survey. The survey includes questions about physical and social functioning. Key Issues when applying the ICF in medicine involve practicability and usefulness for research and clinical practice, how to link the ICF to the International Classification of Diseases and how to maintain comparability across conditions and settings. ICF also allows researchers to address the interaction between functioning and the environment with codes for social programs, use of public transportation and elements of the built environment. The development of ICF Core Sets addresses all these challenges. In this presentation the authors present an outline of ICF, the Core Sets process and a proposed pilot study using the designated populations, key questions in the assessment tool and the process for harmonization across the countries.