Social media–based interventions for patients with cancer: a meta-analysis and meta-regression of randomised controlled trials

PURPOSE: This review aimed to (1) evaluate the effectiveness of social media–based interventions for improving the quality of life, anxiety and depressive symptoms of patients with cancer at post-intervention and follow-up; (2) identify the essential features of social media–based interventions and (3) explore the covariates of the treatment effect. METHODS: All types of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Ten electronic databases, clinical trial registries and grey literature sources were searched from inception to 15 December 2021. Stata software was used to perform meta-analysis, subgroup analyses and meta-regression analyses. Individual quality assessment and certainty of evidence were assessed using Cochrane risk of bias tool version 1 and Grading of Recommendations Assessments, Development and Evaluation criteria, respectively. RESULTS: This review included 43 RCTs, which comprised 6239 patients with a total mean age of 49.71 years old from across 11 countries. Social media–based interventions significantly improved the quality of life (g = 0.25, 95% CI = 0.05–0.45) and anxiety symptoms (g = − 0.41, 95% CI = − 0.76–0.07) but not depressive symptoms. The essential features based on the subgroup analysis concluded that using a mobile device with a flexible frequency had a remarkably greater effect on the quality of life and anxiety symptoms than their counterparts. The meta-regression showed the covariate features, where having more social media features in interventions significantly improved the quality of life (β = 0.21, p = 0.01). The certainty of evidence was very low for all outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Participants who received social media–based interventions may experience an increase in quality of life and reduction in anxiety symptoms. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Social media–based interventions may complement usual care in improving quality of life and anxiety symptoms. Registration in PROSPERO CRD42022297956. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11764-022-01244-6.