Dimensional Approach to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Dimensional Obsessive-Compulsive Scale with Turkish Psychometric Properties

Objective: The Dimensional Obsessive Compulsive Scale (DOCS) is a measurement tool that examines the severity of thematically distinct symptom domains of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). In this study we assess psychometric properties of the Turkish version of DOCS. Methods: Ninety-six patients who presented consecutively to the Diskapi Yildirim Beyazit Teaching and Research Hospital outpatient unit and who were diagnosed with OCD according to the DSM-IV-TR criteria were enrolled in the study. The DOCS, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), and Padua Inventory (PI) were completed by the participants. Internal consistency was estimated using Cronbach's Alpha values and item-total correlations. Principal component analyses with Varimax rotation were used to assess latent factor structure. Results: Explanatory Factor Analyses (EFA) revealed a 4-factor solution for the DOCS. Chronbach's alpha values for the whole scale, "contamination" sub-scale, "responsibility" sub-scale, "unacceptable thoughts", and "symmetry" sub-scales were 0.874, 0.932, 0.933, 0.948, 0.921, respectively. There was a high correlation between both total scores and sub-scales scores of DOCS, YBOCS and PI. Conclusions: Internal consistencies were good for the total scale and excellent for the sub-scales. The factor structure and the contents of the factors were perfectly in line with the original scale (i.e. 4 factor). Positive correlations between DOCS, its sub-scales, and similar OCD scales suggest that the DOCS accurately measures the structures it claims to assess. Thus the DOCS Turkish version can measure dimensional obsessive compulsive symptoms among the Turkish speaking OCD population.