Response: Prevalence of Depression and Glucose Abnormality in an Urbanizing Rural Population of Bangladesh (Diabetes Metab J 2015;39:218-29)

Corresponding author: Khurshid Natasha Division of Public Health, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences, 125/1 Darussalam Mirpur, Dhaka 1216, Bangladesh E-mail: [email protected] We appreciate your Interest and comments on our article entitled “Prevalence of Depression and Glucose Abnormality in an Urbanizing Rural Population of Bangladesh” which was published in Diabetes Metab J [1]. First, it is a very different finding to get a high prevalence of depression among our rural people where the national data says the depression level is 4.6% only [2]. But you know truth is not the fact. So, we (Bangladesh Diabetic Association) kept continuous research at that particular place. And for your kind information my another paper “Temporal changes in the prevalence of depression in subjects with and without diabetes in a rural area of Bangladesh” [3] is the result of this. We showed that the prevalence of depression is declining there day by day, and the possible causes are discussed in the papers also. Second, thank you for the suggestion regarding Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Of course MADRS is an epidemiological tool and we used with much caution. A highly expert psychologist (Dr. Shahin Asghar) [4] from Norway Trained the researchers and with several pilot and trial study we went for the final research. Lastly, in general the prevalence of depression is more in female than male, but surprisingly in case of glucose abnormality there was no significant difference. Thank you for noticing the interesting fact. We shall keep these points in mind to work in future also to analyse the glycosylated hemoglobin. We would like to thank Tomoyuki Kawada for your interest and thoughtful comments.