Funcionalidade e incapacidade humana: explorando o escopo da classificação internacional da Organização Mundial da Saúde

REVISÃO REVIEW

Funcionalidade e incapacidade humana: explorando o escopo da classificação internacional da
Organização Mundial da Saúde
Human functioning and disability: exploring the scope of the World Health Organization’s international classification

Rosana Ferreira Sampaio
Madel Terezinha Luz 2

1

Abstract
Escola de Educação Física,
Fisioterapia e Terapia
Ocupacional, Universidade
Federal de Minas Gerais,
Belo Horizonte, Brasil.
2 Instituto de Medicina
Social, Universidade do
Estado do Rio de Janeiro,
Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
1

Correspondência
R. F. Sampaio
Departamento de
Fisioterapia, Escola de
Educação Física, Fisioterapia e Terapia Ocupacional,
Universidade Federal de
Minas Gerais.
Av. Presidente Antônio Carlos
6627, Campus Universitário
Pampulha, Belo Horizonte,
MG 31270-901, Brasil. [e-mail] Introdução

The theoretical discussion on disability is dichotomized according to the medical and social perspectives. The biomedical model focuses on impairment, disease, or physical abnormality and how these factors produce disability. The social approach suggests that the meaning of disability and impairment emerges from specific social and cultural contexts. The WHO created the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), with a classification system and theoretical model based on the combination of the medical and social models and using a biopsychosocial approach to integrate the health dimensions. Despite the importance and immediacy of the ICF, some concepts were insufficiently detailed and justified and could lead to distinct interpretations. This essay proposes to describe the ICF model and analyze the scope of the biopsychosocial theory for exploring the relational nature of the “disability” and “impairment” categories, as well as the universal nature of the WHO proposal. One of the most positive aspects of the
ICF is to highlight the interactive nature