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Research Article: Psychometric Validation of the Portuguese Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (PT-OCS)

Date Published: 2024-02-28

Abstract:
The psychological effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Portuguese population are quite relevant and partially related to their repetitive and disruptive thinking about the disease. The successive periods of lockdown contributed to an additional burden on the family–work–life balance for parents. This study aims to validate the Portuguese version of the Obsession with COVID-19 Scale (PT-OCS), which was developed using a general sample from several regions of the country (n = 531) together with a specific sample of Portuguese parents (n = 109). The confirmatory factor analysis results indicate that the PT-OCS includes a set of excellent psychometric properties concerning both the general sample (?2(1) = 0.446, p = 0.504; CFI = 1.0; GFI = 1.0; RMSEA = 0.0; standardised RMR = 0.003) and the parent group (?2(2) = 1.816, p = 0.403; CFI = 1.0; GFI = 0.99; RMSEA = 0.0; standardised RMR = 0.016; Bollen–Stine bootstrap p = 0.65). The scale shows very good reliability (0.84 < ?/? < 0.88). As expected, obsession with COVID-19 was highly correlated with COVID-19 anxiety, and women had higher PT-OCS scores. The findings suggest that the PT-OCS is a reliable and valid measure for both persistent and disruptive thinking about COVID-19 in different groups of the Portuguese population, with potential for studying future epidemic events.

Introduction:
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first discovered in China in December 2019 and spread worldwide quickly, reaching global pandemic status by March 2020 [1]. By May 2023, the number of deaths due to COVID-19 reached 6,927,378, with a total of 765,903,278 infected cases documented [2]. In Portugal, COVID-19 has killed 26,616 registered people and infected 5,582,987 more [2].

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