Abstract
BackgroundSelf-management interventions have been proposed as effective strategies to improve health and well-being and promote optimal coping in cancer survivors. Several reviews have shown benefits of self-management interventions on a variety of patient-reported outcomes. Effective self-management strategies in other chronic disease populations are typically based on theories of behavior change, but the extent of theoretical underpinnings in cancer self-management programs has not been evaluated to date. Our aim is to expand on previous reviews by evaluating the effectiveness of self-management interventions in cancer survivors as well as the theoretical components of such interventions.MethodsWe will conduct a systematic review of self-management interventions for adults who have completed primary treatment for their solid or hematological cancer. Interventions tested using experimental or quasi-experimental methods, with any type of comparator, will be included. A search strategy will be designed with a health sciences librarian and then performed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Scopus, the Cochrane database of systematic reviews, the National Institutes of Health clinical trials registry, and the Cochrane CENTRAL registry of controlled trials. Data synthesis will include a narrative and tabular summary of the results. Appropriate statistical analysis may include a meta-analysis using random effects methods to determine the effectiveness of self-management interventions and a meta-regression to evaluate how characteristics of the interventions are associated with the intervention effect. Risk of bias will be evaluated using the Cochrane risk of bias tool or the Risk of Bias in Non-randomized studies tool (RoBANS).DiscussionThe results of this systematic review will add to previous reviews and expand the existing knowledge base of the effectiveness and active components of self-management interventions for adult cancer survivors.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO CRD42018085300
Highlights
Self-management interventions have been proposed as effective strategies to improve health and well-being and promote optimal coping in cancer survivors
Our goal is to extend previous reviews by including an evaluation of the theoretical basis and specific components of self-management interventions
This systematic review will build on previous reviews on self-management interventions in adult cancer survivors
Summary
Self-management interventions have been proposed as effective strategies to improve health and well-being and promote optimal coping in cancer survivors. Cancer survivors may suffer from a number of long-term physical and psychological health problems as a result of the cancer treatments that they received. Most commonly, these include physical health problems such as chronic fatigue, changes to functional capacity, physical functioning alterations, and body composition changes [5,6,7]. Self-management has been proposed as one such strategy to be used by patients and health care systems to manage the chronic effects of illness [7, 8]
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