Table 2.
Summary of characteristics in selected RCTs
| Author | Years | Country | Follow-up (month) |
n (intervention/control) (610/549) | Social support intervention | Period of the intervention (months) | Sessions | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandgren [20]a | 2003 | USA | 5 | 78/55 | Psychoeducational support | Health education, emotional expression | 3 | 6 |
| Meneses [18] | 2007 | USA | 3, 6 | 125/131 | Breast Cancer Education Intervention (BCEI) psychoeducational support | 6 | 8 | |
| Beatty [15] | 2010 | Australia | 3, 6 | 25/24 | Self-help workbook (each chapter containing educational information on common medical and psychosocial issues) | 6 | ||
| Gustafson [21] | 2001 | USA | 2, 5 | 121/125 | Other psychosocial Support | Comprehensive Health Enhancement Support System (CHESS) | 5 | |
| Sandgren [20]a | 2003 | USA | 5 | 89/55 | Health education, emotional expression | 3 | 6 | |
| Owen [19] | 2005 | USA | 3 | 62/62 | Online coping program | 3 | ||
| Gellaitry [17] | 2010 | UK | 1, 3, 6 | 38/42 | Writing intervention (emotional disclosure, cognitive appraisal, benefit finding, looking to the future) | 6 | 4 | |
| Salzer [16] | 2010 | USA | 4, 12 | 50/26 | Internet peer support | 12 | ||
| Cousson-Gelie [14] | 2011 | France | 1b | 22/29 | Specific intervention (a specific psychosocial intervention) | 1 | 8 | |
aThis study compared separately the effectiveness of health education and emotional expression interventions to that of standard care
bAfter eight sessions (or 1 month for the control group)