Chapter 2 Objectives and Overall Plan for the ICIDH-2 Cross-Cultural Applicability Research Study

The cross-cultural applicability research study (CAR) for ICIDH-2 revision and instrument development was conducted as an early part of a multi-year joint project between the World Health Organization (WHO), the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), and participating centres around the world. The overall aim of the project was to develop disability assessment instruments, based on a revision of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (ICIDH 1980) that would be applicable in different cultures. These instruments will subsequently be used in epidemiological research, to determine the nature and extent of disabilities world-wide. They will be used in health services research to discover better ways to provide effective services to disabled persons. They will also be used in prevention and intervention research projects to assess changes in the levels of disabili ty in various communities, where local, regional and national prevention programmes are being tested for effectiveness. The CAR study formed the basis for assuring that the revised ICIDH-2 concepts, and the instruments, could be used to compare international disability statistics correctly and in planning comparable and effective health services around the world. The WHO team and participating centres have all had extensive experience working with cross-cultural health issues, instrument development, and health classifications. WHO researchers determined that there were two critical requirements for the CAR research. First, it had to provide data on the cultural comparability of the disability construct, the basic theory and philosophy behind the international understanding of disabilities and health proc-