Depression Literacy Status in Bangladesh: A Cross-Sectional Comparative Observation -

Background: Depression is considered as 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 in four heterogeneous groups. Methods: This cross sectional study conducted in 04 different study places and among 608 respondents. Respondent 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.