International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and correlation between disability and finance assets in chronic stroke patients

Background: Stroke is the third cause of long term disability worldwide and its rehabilitation pro-gram must to have into account all aspects of disability. International research and politics increasingly study the relationship between disability and the direct costs associated with living with a disability. Objective: Using the ICF, this article provides a correlation between financial assets and disability in participation and activi-ties, in a context such as the Italian one where there is a twenty-year decentralization of the national health system. Methods: At the University of Catanzaro, in southern Italy, n=130 ICF checklists of stroke patients were analyzed at 6 months from the end of the rehabilitation treatment. Financial assets domains in environ-ment and nine domains in participation and activities were correlated, in order to evaluate the relationship between familiar economic condition and disability. Results: Pearson’s r test (t=-6.6515, df=25, p-value<0.05) showed a significant correlation of 0.79. Multiple R-squared was 0.639 and an we reported an Adjusted R-squared of 0.6245 (p<0.05). Thus, about 62% of the increase of the all considered disability qualifiers in participation and activities in ICF checklist can be explained by a lower financial income. Conclusions: In a regional context (Calabria) of a European country (Italy) with a national health system, thanks to the ICF it can be assumed that with the decrease of the financial income, the gap in participation of activities increases. (www.actabiomedica.it)