A Cluster Randomized Control Trial: Text messaging reminders to raise care seeking among depressed women in rural Bangladesh
The research is collaboration between IUB and SHARE (South Asian Hub for Advocacy, Research and Education on Mental Health.
Principal Investigator: Professor Omar Rahman
Co-PI: Dr. NafisaHuq
Research Associates: Dr. Raysul Haque; Tarzia Chowdhury
Background
Major depression is the most common mental health disorder and one of the leading causes of the global disease burden and disability.It afflicts twice as many women as men across different countries and settings. A nationally representative study in 2003-2005, carried out by the National Institute of Mental Health in Bangladesh in collaboration with WHO showed the prevalence of major depressive disorder in the general adult population to be 4.6%. However, lack of initiation and poor adherence with health care providers’ is a major barrier to treating depression in South Asia. Text messaging reminders have been shown to be very effective in raising rates of adherence to treatment in other chronic disorders. However, no study has looked specifically at using text messaging reminders to raise rates of care seeking among depressed women in a developing country.
Objective
The current study aims to determine the impact of automated text messaging reminders to depressed women on rates of care seeking.