Effectiveness, acceptance and satisfaction of guided chat groups in psychosocial aftercare for outpatients with prostate cancer after prostatectomy

BACKGROUND: Physical and psychological symptoms associated with prostate cancer and its treatment can cause patients to feel distressed. Furthermore, patients still experience a range of unmet support needs. Online interventions have the potential to fill a gap in cancer care by augmenting the limited available mental health services. OBJECTIVE: The main goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of guided chat groups in psychosocial aftercare for outpatients with prostate cancer. Additionally, the participants' satisfaction with and acceptance of the intervention was measured and evaluated. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to analyze the research questions. 18 prostate cancer patients followed five web-based chat-group sessions. 26 patients received treatment as usual. The guided chat group enabled patients to exchange concerns, problems and support with fellow patients. The intervention group and control patients had to fill in self-reported questionnaires before the intervention and at a follow-up. Outcome measures include distress, anxiety, depression, anger, need for help, quality of life (QoL), fear of progression (FoP) and coping with cancer. To analyze the effectiveness of the chat groups, an analysis of covariance was conducted. RESULTS: The analysis of covariance revealed one significant difference between the two groups for the outcome anger. The difference had a large effect size (η(2) = 0.160) with higher scores for the intervention group. Further differences with a medium effect size were found for coping with cancer, the physical component of quality of life and depression. The intervention group scored higher on all three outcomes. Additionally, participants reported that the atmosphere in the chat sessions was confidential and believed that the chat program worked as a bridge between inpatient treatment and daily life. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention participants reported poorer results for the primary and secondary outcomes in comparison to the control group patients at follow up, which indicates that web based chat groups may not be an effective way to decrease prostate cancer perceived distress even if the intervention participants seem to accept the intervention.