Effectiveness, acceptance and satisfaction of guided chat groups in psychosocial aftercare for outpatients with prostate cancer after prostatectomy
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Physical and psychological symptoms associated with prostate cancer and its treatment can cause patients to feel distressed. Furthermore, patients still experience a range of unmet support needs. Online interventions have the potential to fill a gap in cancer care by augmenting the limited available mental health services. OBJECTIVE: The main goal of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of guided chat groups in psychosocial aftercare for outpatients with prostate cancer. Additionally, the participants' satisfaction with and acceptance of the intervention was measured and evaluated. METHODS: A quasi-experimental design was used to analyze the research questions. 18 prostate cancer patients followed five web-based chat-group sessions. 26 patients received treatment as usual. The guided chat group enabled patients to exchange concerns, problems and support with fellow patients. The intervention group and control patients had to fill in self-reported questionnaires before the intervention and at a follow-up. Outcome measures include distress, anxiety, depression, anger, need for help, quality of life (QoL), fear of progression (FoP) and coping with cancer. To analyze the effectiveness of the chat groups, an analysis of covariance was conducted. RESULTS: = 0.160) with higher scores for the intervention group. Further differences with a medium effect size were found for coping with cancer, the physical component of quality of life and depression. The intervention group scored higher on all three outcomes.Additionally, participants reported that the atmosphere in the chat sessions was confidential and believed that the chat program worked as a bridge between inpatient treatment and daily life. CONCLUSIONS: Intervention participants reported poorer results for the primary and secondary outcomes in comparison to the control group patients at follow up, which indicates that web based chat groups may not be an effective way to decrease prostate cancer perceived distress even if the intervention participants seem to accept the intervention.
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Being referred onto trial by treatment team was the most frequent recruitment strategy, followed by social media, cancer patient organisations, reviewing medical records, posters, and leaflets.
“Being referred onto trial by treatment team [33, 45, 55, 59, 67] was the most frequent employed strategy, followed by recruiting participants via social media [46, 55, 56, 61], cancer patient organisations [46, 54, 55, 61], reviewing medical records [57, 58, 60], exhibiting posters [46, 67], disseminating a leaflets [55].”
From Web-based interventions for fear of cancer recurrence: A scoping review with a focus on suggestions for the development and evaluation of future interventions (2024) · cites this paper as [59]
The Method > Participants section says patients were approached at the clinic during their hospital stay, supporting clinic-based recruitment. It does not say the treatment team referred them to the trial. The claim that this was the most frequent strategy across studies is not established by this individual study; the later strategies are attached to other citations in the citing sentence. (LLM, conf=0.78)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredQualified therapists delivered the intervention in ten reviewed studies, most often alongside website self-guided materials.
“Qualified therapists delivered the intervention in ten reviewed studies, most often alongside the website self-guided materials [37, 43–45, 53, 56, 57, 59, 61].”
From Web-based interventions for fear of cancer recurrence: A scoping review with a focus on suggestions for the development and evaluation of future interventions (2024) · cites this paper as [59]
The Method > Intervention passage says certified psychological psychotherapists guided this study’s online chat groups. It describes a user manual and a website for accessing the chat room, but not self-guided website materials alongside the intervention. This single study also cannot establish the citing sentence’s count of ten studies or what was most common across them. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredLange et al. found that intervention participants reported poorer results for the primary and secondary outcomes in comparison to the control group patients at follow up.
“Lange et al. [59] found that intervention participants reported poorer results for the primary and secondary outcomes in comparison to the control group patients at follow up.”
In Lange et al.'s web-based chat program for prostate cancer patients, only 18 patients (5%) participated in the intervention group till follow-up.
“These overall positive findings contrast with what Lange et al.’s [59] reported about their web-based chat program for prostate cancer patients: only 18 patients (5%) participated in the intervention group till follow-up.”
Few studies have addressed chat-based internet interventions targeting cancer survivors; previous research focused on chat groups for prostate cancer patients or adolescents treated for cancer and reported mixed results.
“Nevertheless, few studies have addressed chat-based internet interventions targeting cancer survivors. Previous research has focused on chat groups for patients with prostate cancer [67] or adolescents treated for cancer and reported mixed results.”
From Development and Evaluation of the Usefulness, Usability, and Feasibility of iNNOV Breast Cancer: Mixed Methods Study (2022) · cites this paper as [67]
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- Authors
- Lange, L., Fink, J., Bleich, C., Graefen, M., & Schulz, H.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Lange, Lukas
- Venue
- Internet Interventions
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2017-09
- Volume
- 9
- Pages
- 57-64
- ISSN
- 2214-7829 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6096258
- OpenAlex
- W2625690347
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Internet Interventions (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › General Health Professions › Health Literacy and Information Accessibility
- Keywords
- prostate cancer, prostatectomy, online peer support, online intervention, distress, depression, anxiety, coping with cancer, quality of life, fear of progression, intervention acceptance, patient satisfaction
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