Online-based interventions for sexual health among individuals with cancer: a systematic review

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Abstract

Background

Online interventions have the advantages of being widely available, accessible, comfortable, cost effective, and they can provide tailored information and support. Despite these benefits, the effects of specifically devised online intervention programs for cancer patients’ sexual problems are somewhat unclear. The aim of this review is to describe online-based interventions and to assess their effects on sexual health among cancer survivors and/or their partners.

Methods

We investigated the effects of online sexual interventions among individuals with cancer or their partners. Among these, we considered 4 eligible articles.

Results

Despite the diversity of contents of the interventions, the identified modes of delivery among most of the interventions were as follows: education, interactive methods, cognitive behavior therapy, tailored information, and self-monitoring. Methods of monitoring the interventions, including the utilization of the web site and post-treatment program rating, were reported. All the online intervention programs incorporated a focus on physical, psychological, cognitive, and social aspects of sexual health. Significant effects on patient sexual function and interest and the psychological aspect of sexual problems were reported.

Conclusion

This study provides evidence that online-based interventions would be effective in improving the psycho-sexual problems of cancer survivors and their partners.

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Most cited references 44

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Guided and unguided self-help for social anxiety disorder: randomised controlled trial.

Maria Spak, Mandus Frykman, Gerhard Andersson … (2009)

Internet-delivered self-help programmes with added therapist guidance have shown efficacy in social anxiety disorder, but unguided self-help has been insufficiently studied. To evaluate the efficacy of guided and unguided self-help for social anxiety disorder. Participants followed a cognitive-behavioural self-help programme in the form of either pure bibliotherapy or an internet-based treatment with therapist guidance and online group discussions. A subsequent trial was conducted to evaluate treatment specificity. Participants (n = 235) were randomised to one of three conditions in the first trial, or one of four conditions in the second. Pure bibliotherapy and the internet-based treatment were better than waiting list on measures of social anxiety, general anxiety, depression and quality of life. The internet-based therapy had the highest effect sizes, but directly comparable effects were noted for bibliotherapy augmented with online group discussions. Gains were well maintained a year later. Unguided self-help through bibliotherapy can produce enduring improvement for individuals with social anxiety disorder.

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Internet interventions for improving psychological well-being in psycho-oncology: review and recommendations.

Laura B Dunn, Seema Thekdi, Yan Leykin … (2012)

Too few cancer patients and survivors receive evidence-based interventions for mental health symptoms. This review examines the potential for Internet interventions to help fill treatment gaps in psychosocial oncology and presents evidence regarding the likely utility of Internet interventions for cancer patients. The authors examined available literature regarding Internet interventions tailored to cancer patients' mental health needs and reviewed elements of Internet interventions for mental health relevant to advancing psycho-oncology Internet intervention research. Few rigorous studies focusing on mental health of cancer patients have been conducted online. A growing body of evidence supports the efficacy, accessibility, and acceptability of mental health Internet interventions for a variety of general and medical patient populations. The authors present recommendations and guidelines to assist researchers in developing, testing, and disseminating Internet interventions for cancer patients and survivors, to manage and improve their mental health. Issues unique to Internet interventions-including intervention structure, customization, provider interaction, and privacy and confidentiality issues-are discussed. These guidelines are offered as a step toward establishing a set of "best practices" for Internet interventions in psycho-oncology and to generate further discussion regarding the goals of such interventions and their place in cancer care. Internet interventions have the potential to fill an important gap in quality cancer care by augmenting limited available mental health services. These interventions should be developed in a manner consistent with best practices and must be empirically tested and validated. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Characteristics of effective Internet-mediated interventions to change lifestyle in people aged 50 and older: a systematic review.

T Aalbers, Marcel Olde Rikkert, Maria Baars (2011)

Worldwide, the number of people aged 60 years and older steadily grows to a predicted 2 billion in 2050. Online interventions increasingly target lifestyle risk factors to promote healthy aging. The objective of this systematic review is to evaluate whether Internet mediated lifestyle interventions can successfully change lifestyle in people aged 50 and older. A PubMed search was conducted resulting in twelve articles, based on ten studies. The studies focused on physical activity, weight loss, nutrition, and diabetes. Nine studies used feasible interventions, with an average small to moderate effect size. The most important result is that there are multiple studies reporting positive lifestyle changes in an older population. On average, complex interventions, whether they present tailored or generic information, and online or offline comparison, are more effective than interventions with only one component. Internet mediated interventions hold great potential in implementing effective lifestyle programs, capable of reaching large populations of older persons at very low costs. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Hee Sun Kang: goodcare@cau.ac.kr

Hyun-Kyung Kim: leomommy@hanmail.net

Seong Man Park: seongmanpark@dankook.ac.kr

Jung-Hee Kim: +82-02-2258-7816 , jhee90@catholic.ac.kr

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Health Serv Res

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Health Serv Res

Title: BMC Health Services Research

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1472-6963

Publication date (Electronic): 7 March 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 7 March 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 18

Electronic Location Identifier: 167

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0789 9563, GRID grid.254224.7, Red Cross College of Nursing, , Chung-Ang University, ; 84 heukseok-Ro, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 06974 Republic of Korea

[2 ]Department of Nursing, Korean Christian University, 47 Kkachisan-ro 24 gil, Gangseo-gu, Seoul, 17520 Republic of Korea

[3 ]ISNI 0000 0001 0705 4288, GRID grid.411982.7, School of General Education, , Dankook University, ; 119, Dandae-ro, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chungnam 31116 Republic of Korea

[4 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0470 4224, GRID grid.411947.e, College of Nursing, , The Catholic University of Korea, ; 222 Banpo-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 06591 Republic of Korea

Article

Publisher ID: 2972

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-018-2972-6

PMC ID: 5842558

PubMed ID: 29514669

SO-VID: 2280f173-d207-418d-b92a-8d358fb80b65

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

History

Date received : 6 July 2017

Date accepted : 27 February 2018

Funding

Funded by: Korean Government

Award ID: 2015R1D1A1A02061650

Award Recipient : Jung-Hee Kim

Custom metadata

ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: cancer,online,psychoeducation,sexual health

Data availability:

ScienceOpen disciplines: Health & Social care

Keywords: cancer, online, psychoeducation, sexual health

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Online-based interventions for sexual health among individuals with cancer: a systematic review

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Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Related collections

Online interactive cancer simulations and demos

Most cited references 44

Guided and unguided self-help for social anxiety disorder: randomised controlled trial.

Internet interventions for improving psychological well-being in psycho-oncology: review and recommendations.

Characteristics of effective Internet-mediated interventions to change lifestyle in people aged 50 and older: a systematic review.

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