The Relationship Between Illness Uncertainty and Social Support Among Cancer Patients: A Meta-analysis.
Sijia Wu, Xiajun Guo, Haishan Tang and 5 others
PMID 38447045WHAT IT FOUND
Among cancer patients, higher illness uncertainty tended to go with lower social support.
The link was moderate, varied by cancer type and country, and was not explained by age or gender.
Key findings
01Across 41 studies involving 5403 participants, illness uncertainty and social support showed a moderate negative correlation (r = −0.33; 95% CI, −0.38 to −0.27; P < .000).
02The association was significantly moderated by country, publication year, cancer type, and social support measure; ovarian cancer had the strongest negative correlation (r = −0.43), while bladder cancer was weakest and positive (r = 0.04).
03Gender and age did not significantly moderate the association.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The review included only Chinese and English articles and no studies from Africa or South America, so conclusions may not apply everywhere. It pooled correlations, not tested interventions, so it cannot show that increasing social support reduces uncertainty. Included studies varied widely in cancer type, country, and social support measure, and heterogeneity was high. Many studies were excluded for insufficient data, repeated samples, language, conference reports, or low quality, which may have affected the pooled estimate. In longitudinal studies, only the first data point was used, so changes over time were not captured.
Declared interests
The authors reported no funding or conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that boosting social support will lower illness uncertainty. The studies measured correlation, not a tested intervention, and the relationship varied by cancer type and country.