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TOPLINE:

A personalized psychoeducational program provided through a mobile messaging app to caregivers of adolescent and young adult cancer patients can help lower anxiety and depression and improve the quality of life (QoL).

METHODOLOGY:

• The caregivers of adolescent and young adult cancer patients, who are typically close family members, experience a lack of support in terms of information and emotional assistance. Existing interventions focus more on practical issues and fail to address the emotional and psychosocial needs of caregivers adequately.
• Researchers created a psychoeducational intervention, based on stress and coping theory, for caregivers focusing on their unmet needs regarding finances, healthcare access, future planning, and specific psychosocial needs of patients.
• Researchers in China randomly assigned 160 caregivers (mean age, 40 years) of patients diagnosed with cancer at age 15-39 years to either a control group that received standard care or an intervention group, which additionally received psychoeducational intervention delivered through a mobile instant messaging app for 5 weeks.
• Primary outcomes were changes in caregivers' anxiety and depression levels at 5 and 12 weeks using standardized scales; secondary outcomes included changes in caregivers' QoL, coping, and unmet needs.

TAKEAWAY:

• The anxiety levels reduced significantly among caregivers in the intervention vs control group at both week 5 (group × time interaction [B] = −3.231; P < .001) and week 12 (B = −1.890; P = .01).
• Caregivers also reported a significant reduction in depression at week 5 (B = −3.253; P <.001) but the difference was not significant at week 12 (P = .11).
• Caregivers in both groups reported a decline in quality of life compared with baseline; the decline in QoL was slower in the intervention group vs control at week 5 (B = 13.574; P = .04) but not at week 12.
• The intervention group showed a significantly greater reduction in unmet needs vs the control group at week 5 (B = −12.136; P < .001); there were no significant changes in the coping levels between the two groups.

IN PRACTICE:

"The intervention group perceived lower levels of anxiety and depression and a better QoL than the control group," researchers wrote. "However, recognizing that one intervention may not address all specific unmet needs, future studies should explore adaptive interventions or provide individualized practical support to address the changing needs of caregivers in clinical practice."

SOURCE:

The study, led by Qinqin Cheng, PhD, from Hunan Cancer Hospital, Changsha, Hunan, China, was published online in JAMA Oncology.

LIMITATIONS:

This study was conducted at a single center in China, which may have limited generalizability. The study relied on self-reported outcomes which could introduce bias. These findings may not be applicable to caregivers, particularly older adults, who do not use mobile apps.

DISCLOSURES:

The study funding source was not reported. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.