Internet‐Based Interventions in Quality of Life Assessments Among Women Living With Breast Cancer: A Systematic and Meta‐Analytic Approach

TL;DR

This study reviews how internet-based treatments affect the quality of life for women with breast cancer, finding some improvement in their well-being.

Contribution

The study provides a meta-analysis of internet-based interventions' impact on quality of life perceptions in breast cancer patients.

Findings

Internet-based interventions showed a positive effect on quality of life perceptions in breast cancer patients.

Significant heterogeneity was found among studies using FACT-B and EORTC-QLQ-C30 assessments.

Participants found home community management complicated but benefited from regular participation.

Abstract

Internet‐based interventions have become a necessity in providing care. To assess quality‐of‐life perceptions among women living with breast cancer (BC) receiving any type of internet‐based treatments.

The present systematic review and meta‐analysis were registered in PROSPERO with the ID no. CRD42024498834. All internet‐based interventional studies among women living with BC assessing their quality of life perceptions before and after the intervention or between the usual and the intervention group were included. We consulted the British Nursing Database, CINHAL, Embase, Medline, Nursing & Allied Database, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases. Quality of life perceptions were assessed thanks to the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Breast (FACT‐B) and the EORTC‐QLQ‐core Questionnaire (EORTC‐QLQ‐C30).

The heterogeneity test findings of the eight studies exploring the FACT‐B suggested that there was a significant heterogeneity among the selected studies (I
2 = 68%, p = 0.002). The FACT‐B mean score among women living with BC was 0.31 (95% CI: 0.08–0.53). The heterogeneity test among the four studies exploring the EORTC‐QLQ‐C30 score revealed that there was a significant heterogeneity among the selected studies (I
2 = 74%, p = 0.009). The EORTC‐QLQ‐C30 mean score was 0.24 (95% CI: −0.11 to 0.58).

Internet‐based interventions could ameliorate quality of life perceptions since most of the enrolled participants revealed as complicated the home community management allowing regular participation.

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