The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) core sets for deafblindness, part II of the systematic review: linking data to the ICF categories.
Atul Jaiswal, Abinethaa Paramasivam, Shreya Budhiraja and 12 others
PMID 39235255WHAT IT FOUND
Deafblindness in adults is characterized by challenges in listening, seeing, and hearing, alongside emotional impacts.
Communication assistive technology and interpersonal relationships are central to functioning. Current classification systems miss key personal factors and accessibility needs, requiring more specific coding.
Key findings
01The most frequently linked activity category was listening, followed by using telecommunication devices and communicating with spoken messages.
02Assistive products and technology for communication was the most prevalent environmental factor, appearing in 93 studies.
03Mental functions, specifically range of emotion and memory processing, were more frequently identified than sensory functions in the body function component.
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 review only included studies with at least five participants, potentially overlooking rare experiences. Most included studies were conducted in Europe and North America, which may not represent the global deafblind population. The ICF framework itself lacks specific codes for some deafblindness experiences, such as access to information and personal attitudes. The review focused exclusively on adults, so findings do not apply to children with deafblindness.
Declared interests
The authors declared no financial conflicts of interest. The study was funded by the Deafblind Ontario Services Foundation and Deafblind International.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the high frequency of specific ICF categories as evidence that these are the only or most important aspects of deafblindness. The categories reflect what was measured in existing studies, which may overrepresent certain outcomes like listening or emotional function due to the tools used, rather than the full lived experience.