Journal of Behavioral Health and Psychology. 2018;
7(2):(235-345)
Depression literacy status in Bangladesh: A cross-sectional comparative observation
S.M. Yasir Arafat, Shahoriar Ahmed, Md. Saleh Uddin
Abstract
Background: Depression is considered as a prime source of nonfatal disease and literacy
in depression has an important role in treatment of it.
Objective: We aimed to look into the depression literacy status in Bangladesh over four
heterogeneous groups.
Methods: This cross sectional study conducted in four different study places and
among 608 respondents. Respondents groups were consist of university students,
depressed patients who were taking professional help, chronic physically ill patients
without addressing the depression and medical graduates not working in mental health.
Respondents were conveniently approached with the self reporting D-Lit Bangla questionnaire
from March 2016 to May 2017.
Results: Distribution of the correct responses revealed poor correctness in psychotic
symptom spectrum (Q1, Q3, Q5) and treatment aspects of depression (Q10, Q14, Q18,
Q20) in all institutions but there were variations among the institutions. The mean score
was found 9.19 and there 55.77% of the respondents had scores below the mean score.
Conclusion: The study revealed higher literacy in medical graduates and lower literacy
in depressed patients. Adequate strategies should be focused to improve the depression
literacy both in general and clinical populations which will ultimately reduce the burden
of depression in a country like Bangladesh.
