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Impact of COVID-19 on the Self-Report Assessment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
- Source :
-
Cureus [Cureus] 2024 Apr 17; Vol. 16 (4), pp. e58457. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Apr 17 (Print Publication: 2024). - Publication Year :
- 2024
-
Abstract
- Background The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent guidelines have had a substantial effect on social norms. This likely affected self-report assessment of psychopathology, namely those that assess obsessive-compulsive tendencies routinely used to screen for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). It was hypothesized that self-report assessment of OCD likely produces inflated, non-discriminating scale scores. Methods Data collection occurred prior to the COVID-19 pandemic with the aim of validating a new psychological test; however, data collection was abruptly halted in March 2020. Data collection was allowed to resume in the latter half of the year. Both groups were racio-ethnically and gender diverse. Results Self-report measures of OCD yielded inflated scores. For instance, the total obsessive-compulsive inventory-revised (OCI-R) average score of all participants went from normative levels prior to COVID-19 (M = 13.69, SD = 10.32) to an average score that was above the clinical cut-off on the OCI-R (M = 32.89; SD = 12.95) during the pandemic (t(135) = 9.66, p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 1.66). Conclusions OCD-related scale scores likely produced false positives in research and practice due to COVID-19 health guidelines put in place to protect against infection that may otherwise be considered contamination fears on OCD measures.<br />Competing Interests: The authors have declared financial relationships, which are detailed in the next section.<br /> (Copyright © 2024, Meza et al.)
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 2168-8184
- Volume :
- 16
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Cureus
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 38765337
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.58457