An interventional study of ICF-Based Interdisciplinary Case Management (Rehab-Cycle®) and Conventional Care Management in Intellectual Disability, Mild to Moderate and Developmental Disability, sponsored by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Recruiting at 1 site in Hong Kong. Open to participants aged 18 Years to 60 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-10.
Sponsored by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
This study evaluates whether an interdisciplinary case management approach based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) and the Rehab-Cycle® framework can improve rehabilitation outcomes for adults with intellectual disabilities receiving community-based rehabilitation services.
A total of 120 adults with mild to moderate intellectual disabilities will be recruited from community rehabilitation services and randomly assigned to either an ICF-based interdisciplinary case management group or a conventional care management group. Participants in the ICF-based group will receive coordinated assessments, goal-setting, intervention planning, and outcome evaluation conducted by an interdisciplinary rehabilitation team. Participants in the control group will continue to receive standard services delivered through conventional care management practices.
The study will assess changes in functioning, activity participation, quality of life, life satisfaction, and rehabilitation team effectiveness. The findings will help determine whether ICF-based interdisciplinary case management can provide more personalized, coordinated, and effective community rehabilitation services for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), developed by the World Health Organization, provides a biopsychosocial framework for understanding functioning and disability by integrating body functions, activities, participation, environmental factors, and personal factors. Although the ICF framework has been increasingly promoted for rehabilitation and social service planning, its application in community-based disability services remains limited. This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of implementing an ICF-based interdisciplinary case management model inspired by the Rehab-Cycle® framework in community rehabilitation services for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
The study will employ a randomized controlled trial with pre-intervention and post-intervention assessments. One hundred and twenty adults aged 18 to 60 years with medically confirmed mild or moderate intellectual disabilities will be recruited from community-based rehabilitation facilities operated by participating non-governmental organizations. Participants will be randomly allocated to either an ICF-based interdisciplinary case management group (n=60) or a conventional care management group (n=60). In addition, approximately fifteen rehabilitation professionals, including social workers, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech therapists, nurses, and clinical psychologists, will participate in the interdisciplinary service delivery process.
The intervention will be developed according to the Rehab-Cycle® process. First, a Neurodevelopment Core Set for Intellectual Condition will be established through an expert consensus process using relevant ICF core sets and the Delphi method. The selected ICF categories will guide interdisciplinary assessment and rehabilitation planning. Participants in the intervention group will undergo ICF-based assessment, development of individualized functioning profiles, interdisciplinary goal setting, coordinated intervention planning, and ongoing case review. Participants in the control group will receive conventional rehabilitation services, with assessments and interventions provided independently by different professionals without formal interdisciplinary ICF-based planning.
The primary purpose of the intervention is to improve functioning and participation through coordinated interdisciplinary rehabilitation management. By identifying participants' strengths, limitations, environmental barriers, and facilitators, the interdisciplinary team will establish mutually agreed rehabilitation goals and implement individualized interventions tailored to each participant's needs. Regular interdisciplinary meetings will be conducted to review progress and modify intervention plans as needed.
Outcome measures will evaluate functioning using selected ICF Core Set items covering body functions, activities and participation, and environmental factors. Additional outcomes will include life satisfaction as measured by the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS), quality of life as measured by the World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), and interdisciplinary team effectiveness as measured by the Provider-Perceptions of Team Effectiveness (Provider-PTE) scale. Outcomes will be assessed before and after the intervention period.
The study hypothesizes that participants receiving ICF-based interdisciplinary case management will demonstrate greater improvements in functioning, participation, life satisfaction, and quality of life than those receiving conventional care management. It is also expected that healthcare professionals implementing the ICF-based approach will report enhanced interdisciplinary team effectiveness. The results will contribute evidence regarding the feasibility and effectiveness of integrating the ICF and Rehab-Cycle® frameworks into community-based rehabilitation services and may inform future disability and rehabilitation service planning in Hong Kong and other settings.
387 studies on the registry are indexed under Intellectual Disability; 105 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 120 is above the median of 58 across 248 interventional studies indexed under Intellectual Disability.
Browse Intellectual Disability studies →The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the lead sponsor of 679 studies on the registry; 257 are open to participants now.
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Exclusion Criteria:
Their caregivers will provide proxy consent if the participants with intellectual disability were unable to give the .
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Participants will receive an interdisciplinary case management program based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework and the Rehab-Cycle® model. The intervention includes ICF-based assessment, development of individualized functioning profiles, client-centered goal setting, interdisciplinary care planning, coordinated rehabilitation interventions, and regular team reviews. Healthcare professionals collaboratively identify participant needs, establish rehabilitation goals, implement interventions, and monitor outcomes related to functioning, activity, participation, and environmental factors within routine community rehabilitation services.
Behavioral: ICF-Based Interdisciplinary Case Management (Rehab-Cycle®)
Participants will receive standard community rehabilitation services routinely provided by participating organizations. Assessments, goal setting, intervention planning, and service delivery will be conducted independently by individual healthcare professionals according to existing practice. No ICF-based functioning profile, structured interdisciplinary case conference, coordinated Rehab-Cycle® process, or formal interdisciplinary intervention planning will be implemented. Participants will continue to receive usual rehabilitation and support services throughout the study period.
Behavioral: Conventional Care Management
Participants will receive interdisciplinary case management based on the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework and the Rehab-Cycle® process. The intervention includes ICF-based assessment, development of individualized functioning profiles, collaborative goal setting involving participants and healthcare professionals, interdisciplinary care planning, coordinated rehabilitation interventions, and regular interdisciplinary review meetings. Interventions are designed to address body functions, activities, participation, and environmental factors according to each participant's needs within community-based rehabilitation services.
Participants will receive standard community rehabilitation services routinely provided by participating non-governmental organizations. Assessments, goal setting, intervention planning, and treatment implementation will be conducted independently by individual healthcare professionals according to usual practice. No ICF-based functioning profile, structured Rehab-Cycle® process, formal interdisciplinary case conference, or coordinated interdisciplinary intervention planning will be used.
ICF-based assessments of the core set items
The selected core set items will be used to assess (a) body functions (b117 intellectual function), (b) activity capacity and participation performance in daily living (e.g. basic interpersonal interactions) and (c) environmental and personal influence (e.g. e310 immediate family). The ICF 5-point qualifier will be used based on the converted results of the corresponding assessments with a scale from 0 (no problem) to 4 (complete problem).
Time frame: before and after the experimental and control interventions in a 6-month period
Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS)
The SWLS a brief 5-item self-report measure assessing global cognitive judgments of life satisfaction (Diener et al., 1985). Each item is rated on a 7-point Likert scale from 1 ("strongly disagree") to 7 ("strongly agree"), producing a total score between 5 and 35, with higher scores reflecting greater satisfaction. The scale captures cognitive judgments rather than emotional states, making it suitable for diverse populations. Research consistently demonstrates strong psychometric properties, including high internal consistency, good test-retest reliability, and solid construct validity across cultures and age groups. With its robust measurement performance, the SWLS is a widely used tool in health, rehabilitation, and social science research
Time frame: before and after the experimental and control interventions in a 6-month period
Provider-Perceptions of Team Effectiveness (Provider-PTE)
A brief self-report questionnaire that evaluates healthcare providers' perceptions of interdisciplinary team effectiveness in delivering coordinated care. The instrument assesses key domains including communication, role clarity, shared goals, collaboration, and overall team functioning using Likert-type response scales. Higher scores indicate more positive perceptions of team effectiveness. The Provider-PTE has demonstrated good reliability and validity and is sensitive to differences in interprofessional team performance across healthcare settings. The measure will be used to assess changes in interdisciplinary team functioning associated with implementation of the ICF-based case management approach
Time frame: before and after the experimental and control interventions in a 6-month period
PDFs hosted by the registry, ClinicalTrials.gov.
Plan to share: No — IPD will not be shared to protect the privacy and confidentiality of participants who are services users of the collaborated NGOs. The informed consent and ethics approval for this study do not include permission for public sharing of individual participant-level data.
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