Treating Mental Health and Quality of Life in Older Cancer Patients with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Kathryn O’Keefe, Meiyan Chen, Kevin J. Lesser, Adam S. DuVall () and Alexander T. Dils ()
Additional contact information
Kathryn O’Keefe: College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
Meiyan Chen: School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
Kevin J. Lesser: College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, MI 48859, USA
Adam S. DuVall: Section of Hematology/Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Alexander T. Dils: College of Medicine, Central Michigan University, Mt Pleasant, MI 48859, USA

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 7, 1-12

Abstract: Background: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has been successfully utilized in improving mental health (MH) and quality of life (QoL) in the general population, regardless of age. Cancer, which is most frequently diagnosed in older adults, is a debilitating illness that has a detrimental and long-lasting effect on patients’ MH and QoL. While numerous studies have demonstrated CBT’s efficacy, little evidence exists for its role in older cancer patients. This study, using MH and QoL metrics, evaluates the effectiveness of CBT for older adult cancer patients. Methods: Focusing on MH and QoL and an average age of over 60 years old, a final analysis was performed on 17 clinical trials with a total of 124 effect sizes, including 3073 participants receiving CBT. “Metaphor” and “Robumeta” packages in R Statistical Software (version 4.2.2) were used for analysis, which included robust variance estimation (RVE) in intercept-only meta-regression, and univariate meta-regression for moderator analysis. Results: With 17 clinical trials and 124 effect sizes, our results show that CBT moderately improves MH and QoL in cancer patients d = 0.19, 95% CI 0.0166–0.364, p < 0.0399. The delivery format was shown to be a strong moderator of CBT effectiveness with interpersonal technological interventions combined with pre-programmed segments having a very strong treatment effect size (d = 1.7307, 95% CI 1.5244–1.937, p < 0.001). Conclusions: The use of CBT in older adult cancer patients statistically improves MH and QoL, with delivery format and stages of treatment having important roles. Tech-only interpersonal interventions combined with pre-programmed CBT provide an avenue for targeting older adult cancer patients.

Keywords: cognitive behavioral therapy; older adults; geriatric cancer patients; patient-reported outcome; meta-analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/881/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/7/881/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:7:p:881-:d:1430040

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().