Abstract

The growing urbanization creates many health related problem originating from the urban
social or physical environment, contributing to increased anxiety and depression level. The
objective of this study was to investigate the prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms
among urban adults in Bangladesh, and their socio-demographic predictors. An online cross-
sectional survey was conducted during March-May 2021 among the adults living in Dhaka
city, Bangladesh, using a standard questionnaire designed using Google Forms and sent via a
unique uniform resource locator (URL). Symptoms of mental health issues were measured
using the shorter version of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21 (DASS-21). The survey
covered 993 respondents. Both descriptive and inferential statistical techniques were used for
data analysis. The results indicate that about 40% of the urban adults had moderate-severe
anxiety symptoms, while about 46% had depression symptoms. The higher level of education,
women, students, birth place and asset quintiles were found to be significantly associated
with increased anxiety and depression among the urban adults. The findings stressed on the
need for developing effective mental health services and educational programs for the urban
people to meet their mental health needs and its prevention mechanism. Population-specific
mental health interventions are urgently needed to meet demand during such outbreak.