Effectiveness of family psychosocial intervention on mental health and family function of caregivers of children with cancer: a meta-analysis

Abstract Objective To evaluate the effect of family psychosocial intervention on the mental health and family function of caregivers of children with cancer. Methods A comprehensive literature search of CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CMB, PubMed, Web of Science, MEDLINE, Embase, Cochrane Library, and PsycARTICLES was conducted to retrieve randomized controlled trials of family psychosocial intervention from database inception until 19 September 2021. RevMan (version 5.4.1) was used to analyze the data. Results A total of 894 caregivers participated in 11 studies. The analysis showed that anxiety (standardized mean difference [SMD] = −0.22, 95% confidence interval [CI] = −0.37 to -0.07, P = 0.004) and depression (SMD = −0.33, 95% CI = −0.57 to -0.08, P = 0.01) were significantly reduced, while family function (SMD = −0.86, 95% CI = −1.28 to -0.45, P < 0.001) was significantly improved by the family psychosocial intervention compared with the controls. According to subgroup analysis, family psychosocial interventions were found to reduce posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms when the follow-up time was >1 month (SMD = −0.48, 95% CI = 0.68 to -0.27, P < 0.00001). Conclusions Current evidence supports the use of family psychological intervention to reduce depression and anxiety and improve family function. However, its effect on PTSD symptoms requires further study. Future studies should further identify the role of specific family psychosocial interventions on families and caregivers of children with cancer.