Need a ruling on deflect

[Godogma]

My question is, how does deflect work? Here is the exact text as presented in the Magic book.

Adds a Defense Bonus to armor,
clothing, a shield, or a weapon. This
adds to all active defense rolls made
by the user.

Now, that seems much like the swords from D&D enchanted with Defender, or a Ring of Protection and would seemingly work fine....

Does the bonus apply to the entire body or only to the section covered by the item? Because as written it adds to ALL defense rolls. The question doesn't concern stacking merely how it works.