Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Its Link to the Physical Health of the Relatives of Patients with COVID-19

The outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has had many psychological impacts on the relatives of patients with COVID-19, which can influence their physical health. This study was conducted to determine Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and its link to the physical health of relatives of patients with COVID-19.

This case-control study was conducted on 98 relatives of patients with COVID-19 (the case group) with a mean age of 38.56±9.09 years and 98 family members without patients (the control group) with a mean age of 35.79±9.88 years referring to health centers in Gorgan, Iran during 2022. The subjects were selected by a simple random sampling method after extracting the list of patients with COVID-19 from the Health Information Software (NAB) system of health centers. For each selected case, according to the list of families in the NAB system, a family confirmed with a lack of COVID-19 infection was selected as the control group using the simple random sampling method. The data collection tools included the Yale-Brown obsessive-compulsive scale (Y-BOCS) and the patient health questionnaire-15 (PHQ-15).

The mean OCD score in the case group (6.46±5.87) was significantly higher than that in the control group (2.04±3.76) (P<0.05). The mean physical health disorder of the case group (7.60±4.32) was significantly higher than that in the control group (3.43±3.98) (P<0.05). A significant direct linear correlation was found between OCD and physical health in both groups (r=0.39, P<0.001).

The levels of OCD and physical health disorders were significantly higher in family members with a COVID-19 patient than in family members without a COVID-19 patient.