Illustrating Child-Specific Linking Issues Using the Child Health Questionnaire

Abstract

The publication of the International Classification of Disability, Functioning and Health Children and Youth (ICF-CY) version as a derived classification of the ICF has enabled child health and disability researchers to implement the classification into their work. There is little discussion available in the literature specifically about challenges associated with connecting ICF-CY to child health instruments. The objective of this study was to apply new reflections about linking and previous linking rules to a child-specific instrument using the Child Health Questionnaire as an example. We discovered the importance of knowledge in child health assessment as a linking requisite, issues with linking information about child behavior, the importance of clarifying the vantage point from which one is linking (e.g., child, parent, or family), and the fact that one should carefully consider the true purpose or targets of items before linking them to the ICF-CY, irrespective of the simple language used in the item. Finally, we propose the use of a new not-defined abbreviation to denote items that assess overall child development: not-defined-development (nd-dv).