Depression literacy and awareness programs among Bangladeshi students: An online survey

Preventing depression and helping individuals to become more resilient to depression, awareness-related programs have been suggested. To implement such programs, depression literacy (D-Lit) assessment is needed. However, little information is known about it in Bangladesh, and this gap was addressed - in the present study.

An online-based cross-sectional survey was carried out among 404 university students (62.6% male; 69.3% undergraduates, mean age = 22.35 ± 2.69 years). The survey included questions asking about socio-demographics, personal and family depression history, its' stigma and related programs, and the 20-item Bangla Depression Literacy questionnaire.

The results showed a mean score of 9.30 (SD = 2.75; out of total 20 scores) on the Bangla D-Lit scale. Participants had very limited knowledge of the psychotic symptoms, impact, and management subscales. Moreover, nine items out of the total twenty-items were answered correctly by at least 50% of the participants. There were no significant D-Lit score differences based on gender and past-year personal history, and family depression history. Structural equation modeling indicated that having knowledge about depression and attending depression seminars were positively related to elevated depression literacy.

The study has some limitations due to its cross-sectional study nature and modest sample size. In addition, there the assessment of depression did not use a validated psychometric instrument and the D-Lit comprises multiple-choice responses so the real rate of depression literacy may be even lower than that found because participants could have guessed answers that they did not know.

Findings from this study suggest that depression literacy was low in the population studied and the findings here will help to facilitate mental health literacy awareness programs in the context of Bangladeshi students as well as those outside the country.