A Delphi exercise to refine the WHO three-point Disability Grading system for leprosy, and to develop guidelines to promote greater accuracy and reliability of WHO Disability recording

摘要

A Delphi Exercise was undertaken with two objectives:(1) To ascertain whether operational definitions for WHO Disability Grading couldbe formulated by consensus.(2) To develop a set of simple guidelines based on those definitions for the guidanceof health workers.Fifteen people with general expertise in prevention of disability due to leprosy wereinvited to participate as Delphi panel members, twelve responded positively. Eightissues that commonly cause confusion provided foci for the exercise. Operationaldefinitions aimed at resolving those issues were developed by consensus. Simpleguidelines for health workers, based on those definitions were also created andsupported by consensus. This paper presents the process followed and the outcomesgained from the endeavour.