The Prevalence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms and their Psychological Correlates amongst Pregnant Clinic Attendees in the Capricorn District, South Africa.

Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) symptoms and their relationship with pregnancy- related anxiety, perinatal depression and clinical anger among pregnant black African women in South Africa. The sample consisted of 206 women attending their antenatal check-ups at the Mankweng, Nobody, and Rethabile Clinics, and the Mankweng hospital in the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province. Quantitative data was collected from a convenience sample, within a cross-sectional survey design. First, the prevalence of OCD among the women was established. Then Pearson's correlation analysis was used to establish if there was a linear relationship between the variables of the study. Variables that were related were then subjected to regression analysis, seeking to establish if the independent variables, pregnancy-related anxiety, perinatal depression and clinical anger, together with other pregnancy-related variables, would predict OCD symptoms. When correlational analysis was conducted, the patient characteristics of having undergone a medical check-up, and having previously delivered a live baby generally did not correlate with any of the main scales measuring OCD symptoms, perinatal depression, pregnancy-related anxiety and clinical anger (p<0.05). Almost 39.5% of the pregnant women could be classified as obsessive-compulsive disordered, when using the cut-off score of 36. Furthermore, findings from regression analyses indicated that higher age, the number of gestation weeks, having previously experienced pregnancy-related complications, perinatal depression, pregnancy-related anxiety and clinical anger were variably positive predictors of the Revised version of the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (OCI-R) measured OCD symptoms. The predictors were specific to each of the symptoms. It can be concluded from the study that there is a relationship between OCD symptoms and all the independent variables used.