Effects of digital self-management symptom interventions on symptom outcomes in adult cancer patients: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: Digital self-management (SM) interventions targeting symptom relief have demonstrated positive as well as null outcomes, whereas no study has synthesized the effect of the interventions. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of digital SM symptom interventions on symptom outcomes in adult cancer patients. Methods: A systematic review and meta-analysis based on the previous scoping review was conducted. Six databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, the Cochrane Library, RISS [Korean], and KoreaMed [Korean]) were searched. Population was adult cancer patients. Intervention was SM interventions applying digital health tool targeting symptom management. Comparison was usual care, waitlist controls or active controls. The primary outcome was symptom burden, and the secondary outcomes were individual symptoms. Results: Our meta-analysis of 32 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) including 7888 patients demonstrated that digital SM symptom interventions had a significant effect on reducing symptom burden (effect size [ES] = −0.230) and relieving pain (ES = −0.292), fatigue (ES = −0.417), anxiety (ES = −0.320), and depression (ES = −0.261). Conclusions: Digital SM interventions can improve symptom outcomes in adult cancer patients. Oncology nurses should be aware that digital SM interventions have demonstrated promising outcomes in cancer patient care.