Effective Interventions to Promote the Mental Health of Caregivers of Patients with Breast Cancer - A Systematic Review

Abstract

Breast cancer is one of the most important health problems in Iran and the world, which accounts for about one third of all gynaecological cancers and is the second most common cancer after lung cancer and the most common cause of cancer mortality among women. Considering the extent of the impact of breast cancer in all physical, psychological, and social dimensions on the patient and her caregivers, the purpose of this study is to review the effective interventions in promoting the mental health of breast cancer caregivers. A systematic review study with a comprehensive search of Internet sites, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Elsevier, Springer, Science Direct, Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus and Iranian databases such as Scientific Information Database (SID) and Magiran was conducted using the keywords intervention, promotion, mental health, caregivers, and breast cancer. A total of 28,188 related articles without year limit and 8 articles were obtained manually. Then, out of these articles, 27,964 articles were excluded due to duplication, 119 articles due to non - relevance, 94 articles were in the screening stage of abstracts and 13 articles in the full text review stage, and finally, the quality of 6 experimental and semi - experimental clinical trial studies was evaluated using Jadad scale. Interventions in effective studies in promoting mental health of caregivers of patients with breast cancer include education, support package, psychosocial intervention, and motivational interview. The results of studies showed that all interventions improved the quality of life, reduced the burden of care and positive changes in the psychological dimension of caregivers. Also, four studies based on Jadad scale were of good quality. According to the results of the present study, which is based on the effect of all interventions on positive changes in the psychological dimension of caregivers' lives, and due to the fact that the number of studies in this field was limited and out of 6 studies, 4 studies were of good quality, it seems more and better studies are needed in order to access stronger evidence to implement effective interventions in promoting the mental health of caregivers of breast cancer patients. KEY WORDS Interventions, Promotion, Mental Health, Caregivers, Breast Cancer