Background: With the improvement of medical treatment, the survival rate of cancer patients continues to rise; however, their psychological issues require further management. Currently, there is uncertainty regarding the prevalence of mental health problems among cancer survivors.
Objective: To quantitatively summarize the global prevalence of mental health problems in cancer survivors.
Methods: We searched CINAHL, PsychlNFO, Embase, Web of Science, and PubMed for studies reporting the prevalence of various mental health problems in cancer survivors who have survived at least 3 months. Subsequently, stratified analyses were conducted based on study design, region, cancer system, and time since diagnosis. Moreover, meta-regression was utilized to investigate sources of heterogeneity. We used Rstudio software 4.3.0, Stata 17.0 software and metaprop package.
Results: A total of 147 studies involving 135,015 cancer survivors from over 30 countries were identified, primarily focusing on six mental health problems. Among 78 studies addressing anxiety, the prevalence was 24.4% (95% CI: 20.2%-28.8%). Among the 96 studies on depression, the prevalence was 23.7% (95% CI: 20.1%-27.4%). In the case of sleep disorders, 42 studies reported a prevalence of 34.1% (95% CI: 27.9%-40.6%). The overall prevalence decreased over time since diagnosis. Most of the analyzed data exhibited significant heterogeneity (I2 > 75%).
Conclusion: The analysis indicated that cancer survivors experience a diverse range of mental health problems, which were prevalent among them. The results emphasized the importance of recognizing and treating mental health problems in cancer survivors and served as a reminder for healthcare workers to address mental health problems in this population. The registration number was CRD42023466209.
Keywords: cancer; cancer survivors; mental health problems; meta‐analysis; oncology; prevalence; psychology.
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