Cross-coding from the Swiss Disability Insurance listing to the ICIDH

Abstract

Summary

It has been suggested that converting, via a process of cross-coding, the listing used by the Swiss Disability Insurance (SDI) for their statistics into codes of the International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities, and Handicaps (ICIDH) would improve the quality and international comparability of disability statistics for Switzerland. Using two different methods we tested the feasibility of this cross-coding on a consecutive sample of 204 insured persons, examined at one of the medical observation centres of the SDI. Cross-coding is impossible, for all practical purposes, in a proportion varying between 30% and 100%, depending on the method of cross-coding, the level of disablement and the required quality of the resulting codes. Failure is due to lack of validity of the SDI codes: diseases are poorly described, consequences of diseases (disability and handicap, including loss of earning capacity), insufficiently described or not at all. Assessment of disability and handicap would provide necessary information for the SDI. It is concluded that the SDI should promote the use of the ICIDH in Switzerland, especially among medical practitioners whose assessment of work capacity is the key element in the decision to award benefits or propose rehabilitation.

Key Words:

• ICIDH
• Swiss Disability Insurance (SDI)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

J. P. Vader

It is with great sadness that we have to inform the readership of the Journal that shortly after completing the final editorial work on this Special Issue, Professor Kalman Jacob Mann was seriously injured in a car accident and subsequently died.

Professor Mann was responsible for establishing the two Hadassah Hospitals and Community Health Centres in Jerusalem and for the past 20 years headed the Presidium of Yad Sarah, Israel's largest community based, volunteer operated organization which provides a spectrum of free or nominal cost home care services nation-wide.

We offer our condolences to his family and friends, and trust that this Special Issue stands as a testament to his work in the field.