Participants
depression
RECRUITMENT
At the stage of study participant recruitment, participants were asked if they would be open to a household member being interviewed, provided the household member was not informed of the study participant’s diagnosis. Of 487 study participants, 427 (88%) verbally consented to have a household member interviewed. Of the 427 consenting individuals, 258 were randomly selected for the household interview. Study participants were then asked to provide the name and (if available) contact information of an adult (age 18+) residing within their household and representing their primary social support, if they were not living alone.One month prior to the initiation of the study member’s depression treatment, a data collector traveled to the individual’s household to meet with the household member. If the household member was unavailable during the visit, the data collector returned later. Out of the 258 household members identified by study participants, 237 were successfully contacted and 236 provided verbal consent to participate. Apart from residing in the same household as the study participant and being 18 years or older, there were no other inclusion or exclusion criteria.Household participants were informed that the data collector was conducting a district-wide survey on household health and wellbeing throughout Neno District and that they were selected to participate. To protect confidentiality, household members were not informed of the depression diagnosis of those they were residing with, nor did we inform them that anyone else in their household was participating in a research study. The interview took approximately 30 minutes to complete, and participants were compensated with 2,500 Malawian Kwacha (roughly $3) for their time, an amount equivalent to opportunity costs.