Symptoms of Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder Among Primary School Children in Zahedan, Iran

Objectives: The current study aimed at investigating the prevalence of obsessive - compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms in Zahedan, Iran, and comparing it among primary school females and males aged 7 to 11 years. Methods: The current descriptive study, with a causal - comparative design, was conducted on a statistical population including 61012 students (30843 males and 30169 females) studying in both districts of Zahedan. A multistage cluster sampling method was applied and 381 questionnaires were distributed among the female and male students. Obsessive - compulsive inventory - child version (OCI - CV) developed by Foa was used as a data collection tool. Results: Given the three cut off points considered in the OCI - CV, the results demonstrated that 29.9%, 56.2%, and 13.9% of the subjects experienced mild, moderate, and severe symptoms OCD, respectively. In addition, the results of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated a significant difference in OCD with regard to gender, and all symptoms of OCD (doubting/checking, obsessing, hoarding, washing, ordering, and neutralizing) were more prevalent among the females compared with males. Conclusions: OCD symptoms and obsessive behaviors were more prevalent among females compared with males in Zahedan primary schools.