Psychosocial interventions for adolescents and young adult cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients experience unique psychosocial needs and developmental challenges. A cancer diagnosis can stress this development and disrupt AYAs in their normal life. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the impact of psychosocial interventions on mental health in AYAs. A literature research was conducted, which resulted in twelve eligible studies. The standardized mean difference between intervention and control conditions was 0.13 (95% CI: -0.16 to 0.42) for quality of life, 0.27 (95% CI: -0.22 to 0.76) for cancer-related knowledge and -0.16 (95% CI: -0.73 to 0.42) on psychological distress indicating, small and non-significant effects for interventions improving mental health. This work strengthens the need for age-appropriated interventions in psycho-oncology. Future research should develop interventions more graduated by age. Randomized intervention studies with larger samples and focusing psychosocial outcomes are needed to establish evidence-based psycho-oncological interventions for AYAs.
University Medical Center Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße 55, 04103 Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: Diana.Richter@medizin.uni-leipzig.de.
Diana
D
Richter
University Medical Center Magdeburg, Department of Hematology & Oncology, Leipziger Straße 44, 39120 Magdeburg, Germany.
Michael
M
Koehler
University Medical Center Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße 55, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Michael
M
Friedrich
University Medical Center Jena, Clinic for Internal Medicine II, Department of Hematology and Internal Oncology, Erlanger Allee 101, 07747 Jena, Germany.
Inken
I
Hilgendorf
University Medical Center Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße 55, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Anja
A
Mehnert
University Medical Center Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Philipp-Rosenthal-Straße 55, 04103 Leipzig, Germany.
Gregor
G
Weißflog
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D055815:Young Adult
AYA; Adolescents; Cancer; Interventions; Meta-analysis; Psycho-oncology; Systematic review; Young adults