Previously submitted to: JMIR mHealth and uHealth (no longer under consideration since Jun 10, 2021)
Date Submitted: Jan 13, 2020
App-based CBT Program for Patients with Cancer Who Have Sleep-related Problems: A pilot study
Background:
Owing to accumulating evidence on the easy availability and economic effectiveness of app-based cognitive behavioral therapy, it is increasingly being used as an alternative to traditional cognitive behavioral therapy. In this study, we investigated an app-based cognitive behavioral therapy application that targets sleep-related problems experienced by patients with cancer and evaluated its effectiveness.
Objective:
To develop and evaluate an app-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for patients with cancer who experience sleep-related problems.
Methods:
A total of 57 participants were randomly assigned to an app-based CBT program (HARUToday Sleep; n = 21), an app-based attentional control program (HARUCard Sleep; n = 20), or a waitlist control group (n = 16). Participants were evaluated offline before and after the completion of the program through self-report questionnaires and a dot-probe computer task that measured attentional bias. Twelve did not complete the intervention and post-assessment for health-related reasons, leaving 45 participants in the final analysis.
Results:
The intent-to-treat analysis showed no significant differences across the groups before and after the intervention for both the positive and the negative sleep-related stimuli (positive stimuli: H(2) = .89, p = .73; negative stimuli: H(2) = .80, p = .69). In the study-completers analysis, the intensity of sleep problems decreased significantly after the intervention for patients in the app-based CBT program compared with the waitlist control group (95% CI [-9.20, -2.80], p < .001).
Conclusions:
The HARUToday Sleep app may be an effective intervention for reducing sleep-related problems experienced by patients with cancer.
ClinicalTrial:
ISRCTN11480833, http://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN11480833
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