Physiotherapy VOLUME 97, NUMBER 1, 2011 Editor Editorial Office Michele Harms PhD MSc GradDipPhys MCSP Editor Kingston University and St George’s, University of London, UK Physiotherapy Editorial Office Elsevier Ltd, The Boulevard Langford Lane Kidlington Oxford OX5 1GB, UK Tel.: +44 (0)1865 843672 Fax: +44 (0)1865 843992 E-mail:
[email protected] Guest Editor Catherine Sykes MSc, MCSP, DipTP Professional Policy Consultant World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT), London, UK Associate Editors Claire Ballinger PhD MSc DipCOT Southampton General Hospital Southampton, UK Gareth Noble PhD BSc(Hons) University of Wales Swansea, Wales Richard Bohannon EdD, PT, NCS, FAHA, FAPTA University of Connecticut Connecticut, USA Valerie Pomeroy PhD BA GradDipPhys FCSP University of East Anglia Norwich, UK Tracy Bury MSc GradDipPhys MCSP WCPT Secretariat London, UK Gabrielle Rankin PhD MSc GradDipPhys MCSP Chartered Society of Physiotherapy London, UK Vinette Cross PhD MMedEd MCSP DipTP CertEd University of Wolverhampton Wolverhampton, UK Mike Hurley PhD GradDipPhys MCSP St George's University of London and Kingston University, London, UK Sallie Lamb DPhil MSc GradDipPhys MCSP University of Warwick Warwick, UK International Advisory Board D. Bader (Queen Mary College, University of London, UK) C. Bithell (St George's, University of London and Kingston University, UK) K. Bø (Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway) M. O’Brien (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada) C. Cott (University of Toronto, Canada) R. de Bie (Maastricht University, The Netherlands) W. de Weerdt (University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium) Patricia Roche PhD MSc BSc(Hons) MCSP Queen Margaret University College Edinburgh, Scotland Sally Singh PhD BSc MCSP Glenfield Hospital Leicester, UK Paul Watson PhD MSc GradDipPhys MCSP BSc(Hons) CertHSM PGCE DipPT University of Leicester Leicester, UK C. Eales (University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa) J. Hay Smith (University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand) S. Jenkins (Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia) G. Jensen (Creighton University, Nebraska, USA) R. Ladyshewsky (Curtin University, Perth, Australia) I. Nara (Kobe Gakuin University, Kobe, Japan) A. Nieuwboer (University of Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium) P. Pothongsunun (Chiang Mai University, Thailand) G. Wulf (University of Nevada, USA) The journal of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy Visit the journal website at www.intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/phys Amsterdam • Boston • London • New York • Oxford • Paris • Philadelphia • San Diego • St. Louis Physiotherapy 97 (2011) 1–2 Guest Editorial This issue of Physiotherapy brings together a number of articles in which the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) [1] plays an essential part in the research presented. Published in 2001 and followed by a derived version for children and youth (ICF-CY) in 2007, the ICF is becoming well accepted as a framework in which to explore the relationship between a health condition (usually recorded with an International Classification of Diseases code [2]) and the associated functioning at body (body function and structure/impairments), individual (activity/activity limitations) and societal (participation/participation restriction) levels, as well as the environmental factors affecting level of functioning either as facilitators or barriers. Important features of the ICF that are utilised by the authors in this special issue are the multifaceted and multidirectional nature of human function, the importance of recording t