Patient or treatment centre? Where are efforts invested to improve cancer patients' psychosocial outcomes?
2011

Examining Factors Affecting Cancer Patients' Psychosocial Outcomes

Sample size: 412 publication Evidence: moderate

Author Information

Author(s): Mariko Carey, Clinton-McHarg, Sanson-Fisher RW, Campbell S, Douglas HE

Primary Institution: The University of Newcastle

Hypothesis

The most frequently identified predictors of psychosocial morbidity will be individual variables followed by social support variables.

Conclusion

The study found that individual predictors dominate the psychosocial literature, with no studies examining treatment centre predictors.

Supporting Evidence

  • 95% of descriptive papers included individual predictors.
  • Only 5% of descriptive papers examined social predictors.
  • No studies evaluated treatment centre interventions.

Takeaway

This study looked at how different factors affect the mental health of cancer patients and found that most research focuses on individual traits rather than the treatment environment.

Methodology

The study involved a literature search of Medline for publications from 1999 to 2009, focusing on psychosocial outcomes in cancer patients.

Potential Biases

Potential bias due to the focus on individual-level predictors over treatment centre characteristics.

Limitations

The literature search was limited to one database and only included peer-reviewed papers, which may have excluded relevant studies.

Participant Demographics

The study reviewed literature on cancer patients without specific demographic details.

Statistical Information

P-Value

0.005

Statistical Significance

p=0.005

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1111/j.1365-2354.2010.01211.x

Want to read the original?

Access the complete publication on the publisher's website

View Original Publication