# ASHA Bangladesh--An Integrated Intervention to Address Depression in Low Income Rural Women

> **NIH NIH R01** · ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2022 · $511,588

## Abstract

A leading cause of global disability, depression is widespread among women in low and middle
income countries (LMIC). Poverty plays a major role in depression via multiple pathways, while
depression worsens poverty, compromising economic productivity. Efforts to increase access to
depression treatment in LMIC have been hampered by low treatment uptake/engagement and weak
treatment effects. Recently, researchers & policy makers have pointed to the importance of poverty
alleviation in the fight again the global depression pandemic. We propose to implement an integrated
poverty alleviation/depression treatment intervention for low income women in rural Bangladesh,
designed to break the toxic cycle of poverty and depression. A capacity building component will build
skills and support career development in qualitative implementation research for young scientists and
establish a year-long research fellowship for graduate students at the University of Dhaka.
 Our project builds on an established partnership between Albert Einstein College of Medicine and
the ICDDRB in Dhaka. Following our successful pilot study, we will implement a cluster randomized trial
of an integrated intervention, recruiting 1200 low income women with depression from 80 villages.
Villages will be randomized into one of four treatment arms: 1) evidence based depression treatment;
2) poverty alleviation through an agricultural asset transfer; 3) combined depression treatment/poverty
alleviation, and 4) no-treatment control. Participants will be followed for 24 months. We hypothesize:
improved depression outcomes at 6 and 24 months in the combined arm, compared to depression
treatment or poverty alleviation alone. A detailed, mixed methods process evaluation, designed to
generate new hypotheses regarding program and contextual factors influencing outcomes, will include
in-depth qualitative interviews with program participants and staff, conducted by ASHA fellows.
 The proposed project will generate findings with significant implications for policy makers. To date,
 the work of depression researchers and economic development groups has included little
 collaboration. Programs that seek to reduce depression do not address the devastating impact of
 poverty; while, similarly poverty alleviation programs do not address the role of mental health in
 economic productivity. Results of this study, if promising, will generate evidence to guide
 collaborations among development agencies, researchers, policy-makers, and treatment providers.
 Our team’s dissemination efforts will bring government agencies, international and national health
 and economic development NGOS to consider the potential for a new generation of collaborative,
 integrated intervention approaches.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10480011
- **Project number:** 5R01MH127577-02
- **Recipient organization:** ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** ALISON KARASZ
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $511,588
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-09-02 → 2022-07-02

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10480011

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10480011, ASHA Bangladesh--An Integrated Intervention to Address Depression in Low Income Rural Women (5R01MH127577-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10480011. Licensed CC0.

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