Iranian People s Experiences of Psychological Challenges of Home Quarantine During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Study

Background: People experience a lot of challenges during COVID-19 pandemic, and studies that have examined the effects of quarantining people exposed to COVID-19 in Iran are limited. Objectives: This study aimed to explore the people’s experiences of psychological challenges of home-quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic in southern in Iran. Methods: In this descriptive qualitative study, 44 individuals who were voluntarily quarantined at home for at least two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic were interviewed in depth from the beginning of January to March 2021. Purposive sampling method was used to select the participants, and the conventional content analysis approach was used to analyze the data. Qualitative data management was performed using MAXQDA 10 software. Results: Most participants were 31- 40 years old (29.5%), had diploma (38.6%), were married (75%), and were female (56.8%). The extracted data were classified into 3 main categories (Individual psychological issues, social psychological issues, and family psychological issues) and 15 subcategories. Conclusion: Due to the prevalence of COVID-19, measures such as home quarantine should be taken to control the infection, but it might have adverse psychological impacts on some people, as confirmed by the results of this study. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to the mental health of people during home quarantine, so that this method is more welcomed and successful.