Previously submitted to: Journal of Medical Internet Research (no longer under consideration since Nov 02, 2022)
Date Submitted: Mar 24, 2022
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Effectiveness of Virtual Reality in Symptom Management of Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis
ABSTRACT
Background:
Cancer patients often suffer severe physical and psychological burdens due to the effects of disease itself and therapy. Symptom management is the core of cancer care. Multiple virtual reality (VR) -based interventions have been used to help cancer patients improve physical and psychological symptoms and improve their quality of life.
Objective:
This study was aimed to assess the effectiveness of VR-based interventions on symptoms management in cancer patients.
Methods:
We conducted a comprehensive search of the PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane, Scopus and APA PsycINFO databases from inception to December 2021.Two reviewers independently conducted study selection and article extraction, and selected the study that met our requirements in strict accordance with the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Quality assessment of the included studies was performed according to the Cochrane risk assessment tool, and data analysis was performed using Revman 5.4 software.
Results:
A total of 18 studies included 1251 cancer patients from 12 countries were selected in this meta-analysis. Compared to the control condition, the anxiety (standard mean difference [SMD] = −0.77, 95% CI −1.22 to −0.31, P=0.001), pain (SMD=−0.68, 95% CI−1.10 to −0.26, P=0.002), depression (SMD=−0.58, 95% CI−0.81 to −0.35), P <0.001), fear (MD=−0.82, 95% CI −1.60 to −0.03, P=0.04), has significantly improved after VR-based intervention. However, no significant difference was observed in distress (MD=−0.66, 95% CI −2.42 to 1.10, P=0.46), upper extremity function (MD=−0.77, 95% CI −2.66 to 1.11, P=0.42)and quality life (SMD=0.30, 95% CI −0.21 to 0.81, P=0.25).
Conclusions:
VR interventions can be effective in improving physical and psychological symptoms in cancer patients. Due to the moderate to high heterogeneity of some outcomes, further randomized controlled trials with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up periods are needed to validate the results of this study. Clinical Trial: PROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42022304931；https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/display_record.php?RecordID=304931
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