Content Validation of a Practice-Based Work Capacity Assessment Instrument Using ICF Core Sets.
Johan H Sengers, Femke I Abma, Loes Wilming and 3 others
PMID 32803465WHAT IT FOUND
A Dutch work capacity assessment tool covers physical and mental functions well but misses key environmental factors.
It lacks items on social support, workplace attitudes, and psychosocial job demands, which are common in core sets for people with chronic conditions.
Key findings
01The assessment instrument overlaps with work-related core sets on only 36% of its categories, leaving 41.9% of its items absent from any work-related core set.
02High-frequency categories in disease-specific core sets, such as immediate family, friends, and societal attitudes, are missing from the assessment instrument.
03The instrument focuses on physical work environment factors but lacks items assessing psychosocial job demands like supervisor support and job content.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The ICF framework itself does not operationalize personal factors, limiting the comparison. The relevance ranking used an arbitrary cut-off of 70% frequency. The study compares content only; it does not assess the instrument's diagnostic accuracy or clinical outcomes. Core sets were developed with varying methodological quality, though most followed standard consensus procedures.
Declared interests
The SMWC was developed by the Dutch Social Security Institute (UWV). The paper does not explicitly state who funded this specific validation study or if UWV staff were involved in the research team beyond the instrument's development.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the SMWC is invalid for assessing physical capacity; it covers body functions and activities well. The finding is about missing content in the environmental domain, not a failure of the items it does include.