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Informational support for depression and quality of life improvements in older patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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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.

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Data availability

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Code availability

Revman applicable.

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Funding

The study was supported by a grant from the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 18BSH159).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Medicine, Nantong University, Nantong, 226000, Jiangsu, China

    Wenwen Yang, Guiling Geng, Jianing Hua, Min Cui & Zihan Geng

  2. Affiliated Hospital of Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214000, Jiangsu, China

    Jianing Hua

Authors
  1. Wenwen Yang
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  2. Guiling Geng
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  3. Jianing Hua
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  4. Min Cui
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  5. Zihan Geng
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Contributions

Guiling Geng: conceptualization, methodology, software. Wenwen Yang: data curation, writing original draft preparation. Jianing Hua: visualization, investigation. Min Cui: visualization, investigation. Zihan Geng: writing-reviewing and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guiling Geng.

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Yang, W., Geng, G., Hua, J. et al. Informational support for depression and quality of life improvements in older patients with cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Support Care Cancer 30, 1065–1077 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06494-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06494-1

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