Table 1.

Characteristics of the included studies and participants.

First author	Country	Age* (years)	Patients, number*	Jadad’s score	Patients’ characteristics	Intervention*	Contact	Technology	Follow-up	Outcomes and outcome measures
Badr27	United States	68.17 ± 10.30 (average of all patients)	20 versus 19	1+1+1+1 = 4	Advanced LC patients who were within 1 month of treatment initiation	Telephone-based dyadic psychosocial intervention versus usual care	Mental health interventionist	Telephone	6 weeks	Depression, anxiety (the six-item PROMIS short-form depression and anxiety measure)
Chang30	Taiwan, China	62.00 ± 12.15 versus 58.39 ± 13.39	32 versus 33	1+1+1+1 = 4	LC patients recovering from lung lobectomy	Usual care plus once-daily additional brisk walking exercise and weekly telephone calls through week 12 versus usual care	Researcher	Telephone	6 months	QOL [WHO QOL-BREF (Taiwanese)]
Chen23	United States	63 ± 8.9 versus 63 ± 11.3	26 versus 21	0+0+1+1 = 2	LC patients in Appalachia	Wireless home-telemonitoring system, patient-centred phone coaching in addition to usual post-discharge care versus usual post-discharge care	Nurse	Telephone	2 months	QOL (WHO-5)
Denis24	France	65.2 (35.7–86.9) versus 64.3 (42.7–88.1)	60 versus 61	2+2+1+1 = 6	Advanced-stage LC patients	A Web-mediated follow-up algorithm (experimental arm) based on weekly self-scored patient symptoms versus routine follow-up with computerized tomography scan (usual care)	Oncologist	Website	6 months	Quality of life (FACT-L scores)
Hintistan25	Turkey	⩽49 years 8 versus 7 50–59 years 15 versus 8 ⩾60 years 7 versus 15	30 versus 30	0+0+1+1 = 2	LC patients in the Ambulatory Chemotherapy Unit	The standard care plus follow-up call within a week after each chemotherapy session versus standard care	Nurse	Telephone	3 weeks	QOL (FLIC)
Huang 28	Taiwan, China	61.00 ± 2.04 versus 58.68 ± 1.77	27 versus 28	2+1+1+1 = 5	Patients receiving chemotherapy during the first 3 months after initial diagnosis of advanced NSCLC	A Web-based health education programme allowing patients to learn symptom management strategies biweekly versus usual care	Nurse	Website	3 months	QOL (EORTC C30)
Mosher26	United States	63.47 ± 7.68 versus 61.96 ± 8.20	51 versus 55	2+2+2+1 = 7	Symptomatic LC patients	Telephone-based symptom management consisting of cognitive–behavioural and emotion-focused therapy versus education/support condition (usual care)	Licensed clinical social workers	Telephone	6 weeks	Depression, anxiety, fatigue (The Patient Health Questionnaire-8, GAD-7, Fatigue Symptom Inventory)
Walker29	United Kingdom	63.6 ± 8.8 versus 63.9 ± 8.7	68 versus 74	2+2+2+1 = 7	Patients with LC and major depression	Depression care including telephone monitoring care versus usual care	Nurse, psychiatrist	Telephone	8 months	QOL (EORTC-QLQ-C30), depression (SCL-20), anxiety (SCL-10)

^*These items were recorded as experimental versus control group.

EORTC, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer; FLIC, Functional Living Index-Cancer; GAD-7, Generalized Anxiety Disorder seven-item; LC, lung cancer; NSCLC, non-small cell lung cancer; PROMIS, Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System; QOL, quality of life; SCL, Symptom Checklist; WHO, World Health Organization; WHO QOL-BREF, World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire, brief version; FACT-L, Functional Assessmet of Cancer Therapy-lung.