Effectiveness of Psychosocial Interventions on Stress, Anxiety, Depression, and Quality of Life in Parents of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults With Cancer: A Meta-Analysis of RCTs

Abstract

The meta-analysis aimed to investigate the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions applied to parents of children, adolescents, and young adults undergoing cancer treatment. PubMed, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, ProQuest, Science Direct, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched to identify eligible randomized controlled trials from January 1, 2013 and April 2024. Search was limited to parents of children, adolescent, and young adults and psychosocial interventions. Of 9327 articles, 21 articles met the inclusion criteria. The revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials (Rob2) was used. In all, 1926 parents of children with cancer were included. PROSPERO number is CRD42023446776. Psychosocial interventions demonstrated significant effects across various outcomes based on Hedge's g. They showed a moderate effect on anxiety (g = -0.538, 95% CI: [-0.941, -0.135]), a large effect on depression (g = -0.834, 95% CI: [-1.328, -0.339]), a large effect on the quality of life (g = 1.375, 95% CI: [0.367, 2.382], and a moderate effect on stress (g = -0.798, 95% CI: [-1.393, -0.203]). Consequently, psychosocial interventions applied to parents have significant effects on reducing anxiety, depression, and stress and improving the quality of life.