Support Care Cancer. 2021 Aug 20. doi: 10.1007/s00520-021-06494-1. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To assess and summarize the effects of informational support on depression and quality of life of older patients with cancer.
METHODS: PubMed, MEDLINE, and Web of Science were searched to identify articles written in English and published until March 2021. Studies within 10 years period (2010-2021) were included. Randomized controlled trials were included if they evaluated the impact of informational support on depression and quality of life. All analyses were performed with Review Manager 5.3.
RESULTS: Twelve studies with a total of 2374 participants met the inclusion criteria. Our primary outcomes included depression and quality of life. (1) Depression: results indicated no statistically significant difference and low heterogeneity [SMD = 0.28, 95% CI (- 0.24,0.80), p = 0.45; I2 = 0%], (2) Quality of life: in the subgroup analyses of EORTC QLQ-C30, results indicated a significant effect of informational support on quality of life [SMD = 2.84, 95% CI (0.63, 5.05), p = 0.03; I2 = 79%]; in the subgroup analyses of FACT and SF-36, there were no significance.
CONCLUSIONS: Informational support could reduce depression and did improve the quality of life in older cancer patients with statistical significance. The findings suggested that informational support was an effective approach to improve depression and quality of life in older patients with cancer.
PMID:34415425 | DOI:10.1007/s00520-021-06494-1
