EFFECTIVENESS OF COPING SKILLS INTERVENTION FOR CAREGIVERS CARING FOR ADULTS WITH LUNG CANCER:

Abstract

Aims: The aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of coping skills interventions to improve the depression and anxiety outcomes of caregivers caring for adults with lung cancer. Background: Caregivers caring for adults with lung cancer showed greater psychological distress and symptom burden in caring for adults with lung cancer. Although there are coping skills intervention targeted at adults with lung cancer, there are no systematic reviews conducted to assess the effectiveness of coping skills interventions to guide the caregivers. Methods: A systematic search was conducted across 3 databases to obtain published Randomised Controlled Trials (RCTs) till March 2018. Keywords “lung cancer” and “coping skills” were used. Quality appraisal of the selected studies were performed based on the guidelines by the Cochrane Handbook. Results: A total of 61 titles were retrieved from both electronic and manual search. Only 2 randomised controlled trials were included in this review. When the results were combined together, a high level of heterogeneity, I 2 =82% and I 2 = 84% were found for both outcomes. Due to a lack of homogeneity, this review conducted a narrative review. Conclusion and Implication: Coping skills intervention showed potential to improve the depression and anxiety levels amongst the caregivers caring for adults with lung cancer. However, the lack of trials conducted showed that more research is needed to focus on caregivers caring for adults with lung cancer. Research should focus on the need to assess for interventions solely for caregivers or caregiver-patient (dyads) as a unit. Studies should consider utilizing standardized and validated tool to measure the outcomes.