The use of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health in health surveys: a reflexion on its limits and possibilitiesda Classificação Internacional de Funcionalidade, Incapacidade e

The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) 1 is a useful tool to know the conditions of the functionality of people, associated or not to any disease, as well as to identify the environmental and personal factors which favor their activities and, consequently, their quality of life. Among the various uses of ICF is its use in populational surveys on health and disability. The ICF proposes a conceptual model of functionality and disability in which there is multidirectional influence between its elements: functions and structures of the body, activity and participation and contextual factors, represented by environmental and personal factors. This is why the model is a biopsychosocial one. The health surveys, such as the Household Health Survey of Sao Paulo (Inquerito Domiciliar de Saude de Sao Paulo – ISA-Capital), in general, were designed to identify the existing relationships between social conditions and health. A unique feature of the surveys is the possibility of assessing people’s health conditions, including those which are not treated in health services and, therefore, are out of the usual statistics of the system 4-6 .