Validation and cultural adaptation of the Brief Obsessive Compulsive Scale (BOCS) among Sri Lankan Sinhala speaking children and adolescents

Background: Epidemiological studies reveal that over 50% of adults with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) report their symptoms started during childhood or adolescence, a mean age onset around 9 years. Lack diagnostic tools for screening OCD among children and adolescents in native language, adds to the burden already limited child adolescence mental health services (CAMHS) Sri Lanka. Methods: The Brief Obsessive Compulsive Scale (BOCS) was translated into Sinhala, cultural semantic adaptation conducted. Criterion validity measured symptom checklist severity scale, by administration tool sample – cases consisted 50 aged 8-18 years, diagnosed have OCD, who attended CAMHS at Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Age sex matched controls consisting healthy were selected from general population. Results: scores obtained via receiver operator curve cut off 0.92, which had sensitivity specificity 100% 92% respectively. reliability Cronbach’s alpha 0.78 0.94 scale Conclusions: locally validated BOCS has high criterion validity, an excellent diagnosing