ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of how disability is being viewed, defined and measured at World Health Organization (WHO). The International Classification of Functioning, Health and Disability describes disability as an overarching term covering the experience of functional limitation at the level of the body or organ system as well as the person in society. Common clinical usage of the word disability refers to something close to activity limitation and tends to include some elements of participation restriction. WHO regularly undertakes studies on what is called the Global Burden of Disease to determine the age- and sex-specific prevalences of a large number of disease diagnoses by geographic regions or country groupings. With regard to the latter, behavioural risk factors, WHO estimates that in the developed countries of North America, Europe and Asia Pacific, at least one third of the disease burden is attributable to the following five risk factors: tobacco, alcohol, blood pressure, cholesterol, and obesity.
