Employing the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) Framework to Capture User Feedback in the Design and Testing Stage of Development of Home-Based Arm Rehabilitation Technology
Purpose:
To evaluate the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (
ICF) as a framework to ensure that key aspects of user feedback are identified in the design and testing stages of development of a home-based upper limb rehabilitation system for stroke survivors.
Methods:
Seventeen stroke survivors with residual upper limb weakness, and seven healthcare professionals with expertise in stroke rehabilitation, were enrolled in the user-centred design process. Through semi-structured interviews, they provided feedback on the hardware, software and impact of a home-based rehabilitation device to facilitate self-managed arm exercise. Members of the multidisciplinary clinical and engineering research team, based on previous experience and existing literature in user-centred design, developed the topic list for the interviews. Meaningful concepts were extracted from participants' interviews based on existing
ICF linking rules and matched to categories within the
ICF Comprehensive Core Set for stroke.
Results:
Most of the concepts matched the existing
ICF core set categories. Personal factors that emerged from interviews e.g. gender, age, interest, compliance, motivation, choice and convenience that might determine device usability are yet to be categorised within the
ICF framework.
Conclusions:
The categories of the
ICF Comprehensive Core Set for stroke provide a basis for structuring interviews to capture user feedback. However some personal factors need to be considered in addition to the other Core Set categories.
