Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Accept all cookies' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. If you click 'Reject all non-essential cookies' only necessary cookies providing core functionality such as security, network management, and accessibility will be enabled. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

Accept all cookies Reject all non-essential cookies Find out more

Digital delivery of Behavioural Activation to overcome depression and facilitate social and economic transitions of adolescents in LMICs (DoBAT)

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, with the incidence of depression peaking during adolescence. Depression affects cognitive functioning, interpersonal relationships, interferes with schooling, and disrupts work and productivity.

Untreated depression can have serious consequences, as it is associated with more than 90% of all cases of suicide, which has recently been recognised as the second largest and fastest growing cause of unnatural deaths among young people in South Africa (SADAG, 2014). These impairments have a greater impact on adolescents in low- and middle-income countries due to the additional adversities they face and the lack of available, effective treatments. 

This three year project will focus on developing an intervention in an understudied group, adolescents with depression in low-resource settings. Relying on digital technology and aligning this with the evolving community-oriented primary care system, we will use low-end smartphones to adapt and deliver a tailored psychological therapy, Behavioural Activation (BA), among adolescents (15 to 19 years old) living in rural South Africa.

In the first project phase (Jul 2019 – Dec 2020), we will conduct interviews and focus group discussions with adolescents, caregivers, community and education stakeholders to develop a culturally relevant and age appropriate app-based intervention. The functionality, acceptability and usability of the app will be refined through an iterative process with adolescents.

In the following phase (Jan-Dec 2021), we will conduct a pilot randomised controlled trial of adolescents (n=200) to test the effectiveness of this platform in reducing depression (primary outcome), and possible mechanisms, principally executive function and social cognition. As secondary outcomes, we will assess anxiety, risk-taking behaviours and a range of economic and decision-making measures. Further, the proposed work will produce relevant measures of executive functions and social cognition through language translation and cultural adaptation and evaluate their reliability and validity in a rural context. 

The team comprises a multidisciplinary group of psychologists, psychiatrists, neuroscientists and economists from South Africa, as well as from the UK and the USA. The study will be nested within the Agincourt Health and Demographic Surveillance (HDSS) site in MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Unit (Mpumalanga province). Formative work will also take place in the Dikgale HDSS (Limpopo province).

If the pilot study produces promising results it will inform the development of a fully powered definitive trial which we believe could support better management of depression among adolescents living in low-resource settings, and would align effectively with efforts by the South Africa’s Department of Health to strengthen primary care and community-based health care systems.

For more information about this project, view our Agincourt Unit webpage.