Can mHealth interventions improve quality of life of cancer patients? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Inesa Buneviciene; Rania A Mekary; Timothy R Smith; Jukka-Pekka Onnela; Adomas Bunevicius

doi:10.1016/j.critrevonc.2020.103123

Can mHealth interventions improve quality of life of cancer patients? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Crit Rev Oncol Hematol. 2021 Jan:157:103123. doi: 10.1016/j.critrevonc.2020.103123. Epub 2020 Oct 20.

Authors

Inesa Buneviciene¹, Rania A Mekary², Timothy R Smith³, Jukka-Pekka Onnela⁴, Adomas Bunevicius⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Public Communications, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania.
² Computational Neuroscience Outcomes Center, Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Department of Pharmaceutical Business and Administrative Sciences, School of Pharmacy, MCPHS University, Boston, MA, United States.
³ Computational Neuroscience Outcomes Center, Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
⁴ Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University, 677 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States.
⁵ Computational Neuroscience Outcomes Center, Department of Neurosurgery, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Lithuania; Department of Neurosurgery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA. Electronic address: a.bunevicius@yahoo.com.

Abstract

mHealth can be used to deliver interventions to optimize Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer patients. In this systematic-review and meta-analysis, we explored the possible impact of health interventions delivered via mHealth tools on HRQoL of cancer patients. The systematic literature search was performed on July 20, 2019, to identify studies that evaluated the impact of mHealth intervention on HRQoL of cancer patients. We identified 25 studies (17 randomized controlled trials and 8 pre-post design studies; 957 patients) that evaluated mHealth interventions. The most commonly studied mHealth interventions included physical activity/ fitness interventions (9 studies), cognitive behavioral therapy (6 studies), mindfulness/ stress management (3 studies). In the majority of studies, mHealth interventions were associated with an improved HRQoL of cancer patients. The meta-analysis of the identified studies supported the positive effect of mHealth interventions for HRQoL of cancer patients. mHealth interventions are promising for improving HRQoL of cancer patients.

Keywords: Cancer; Health related quality of life; Intervention; Smartphones; mHealth.

Publication types

Meta-Analysis
Systematic Review

MeSH terms

Exercise
Humans
Neoplasms* / therapy
Quality of Life
Telemedicine*