Friendship Bench trial: lay worker training in problem-solving therapy to reduce symptoms of common mental disorders
                  The Friendship Bench trial was a cluster-randomised trial to investigate the effect of problem-solving therapy training for lay workers on symptoms of common mental disorders among clinic attenders in Harare, Zimbabwe.  12 primary care clinics in Harare were randomised 1:1 to intervention or control. In each clinic, 24 participants were enrolled who were: visiting the clinic (either for their own health needs or accompanying someone else); aged 18 or over; living locally; and screened positive for common mental disorder symptoms. Outcomes were measured after 6 months. 86% of participants were women, 42% were HIV positive and 91% completed follow-up. This submission contains data and associated questionnaires produced during the trial.
                
Keywords
Mental health and psychiatry; Zimbabwe; Suicidal ideation| Item Type | Dataset | 
|---|---|
| Resource Type | Resource Type Resource Description Dataset Quantitative | 
| Description of data capture | Research assistants completed a fixed form questionnaire, usually in person, at baseline and after 6 months. A small number of interviews were completed by phone. | 
| Capture method | Questionnaire: Fixed form | 
| Collection Period | From To 1 September 2014 25 May 2015 | 
| Date | 5 February 2021 | 
| Geographical area covered (offline during plugin upgrade) | North East South West -17.7151 31.264 -17.9857 30.8966 | 
| Language(s) of written materials | English, Shona | 
| Creator(s) | Simms, V | 
| Associated roles | Simms, V (Co-Investigator); Chibanda, D (Principal Investigator); Munjoma, R (Data Manager); Abas, M (Co-Investigator); Araya, R (Co-Investigator); Weiss, H (Co-Investigator) and Chingono, A (Co-Investigator) | 
| LSHTM Faculty/Department | Faculty of Epidemiology and Population Health > Dept of Infectious Disease Epidemiology (-2023) | 
| Research Centre | Centre for Global Mental Health International Statistics and Epidemiology Group | 
| Participating Institutions | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, United Kingdom; Zimbabwe AIDS Prevention Project, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe | 
| Funders | Project Funder Grant Number Funder URI Friendship Bench cluster-randomised trial KCU-0087-042 http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004828 | 
| Date Deposited | 15 Feb 2021 12:39 | 
| Last Modified | 18 Jun 2025 12:03 | 
| Publisher | London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine | 
| Available Versions of this Item | 
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Explore Further
- Effect of a Primary Care-Based Psychological Intervention on Symptoms of Common Mental Disorders in Zimbabwe: A Randomized Clinical Trial.
- Validation of screening tools for depression and anxiety disorders in a primary care population with high HIV prevalence in Zimbabwe.
- Trained lay health workers reduce common mental disorder symptoms of adults with suicidal ideation in Zimbabwe: a cohort study.
- Impact of Friendship Bench problem-solving therapy on adherence to ART in young people living with HIV in Zimbabwe: A qualitative study.
Data / Code
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            subject 
- Data
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              lock 
- Restricted to Request access for all
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            copyright 
- Available under Data Sharing Agreement
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              info 
- Friendship Bench dataset - see codebook for information
- description 
- text/plain
- folder_info
- 127B
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            subject 
- Data
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              lock 
- Restricted to Request access for all
- 
            copyright 
- Available under Data Sharing Agreement
- 
              info 
- Friendship Bench Suicidal Ideation dataset
- description 
- text/plain
- folder_info
- 127B
Documentation
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            subject 
- Documentation
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- Available under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
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              info 
- Friendship Bench dataset codebook
- html 
- text/html
- folder_info
- 135kB
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            subject 
- Documentation
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- Available under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
- 
              info 
- Friendship Bench Suicidal Ideation dataset (FB_suicidality_interventionarm)
- html 
- text/html
- folder_info
- 11kB
Study Instrument
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            subject 
- Study Instrument
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- Available under Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
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              info 
- Shona Symptom Questionnaire
- html 
- text/html
- folder_info
- 1kB
