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Mindfulness-based interventions for breast cancer patients in China across outcome domains: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the Chinese literature

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Abstract

Objective

This study aims to evaluate the treatment effect of a mindfulness-based intervention for Chinese breast cancer patients across outcome domains, including symptom-related, psychosocial, and quality of life outcomes.

Methods

Following the Cochrane Systematic Review guideline, we searched across five electronic databases, reference lists of eligible studies, professional websites, and major academic journals in Chinese. Publication bias was assessed using funnel plot and Vevea and Woods sensitivity analysis, and risk of bias was evaluated using the revised Cochrane risk of bias tool for randomized trials and risk of bias in non-randomized studies of interventions. A meta-analysis of Hedges’ g was conducted using meta-regression with robust variance estimation.

Results

Final analysis included a total of 45 controlled trials containing 286 effect size estimates. Across outcome domains, studies reported an overall large and statistically significant treatment effect, d = 0.921, 95% CI (0.805, 1.040), p < 0.001. Subgroup analyses of specific domains of outcome reported overall significant treatment effects for (1) symptom-related outcomes, d = 0.885, 95% CI (0.657, 1.110), p < 0.001; (2) psychosocial wellness outcomes, d = 0.984, 95% CI (0.879, 1.090), p < 0.001; and (3) quality of life, d = 0.990, 95% CI (0.776, 1.200), p < 0.001. Moderator analysis did not identify any significant moderator.

Conclusion

Chinese literature reported an overall statistically significant and large treatment effect of a mindfulness-based intervention for breast cancer patients in China. Except for physical symptom outcomes, e.g., nausea/vomiting and pain, a mindfulness-based intervention was effective across outcome domains among Chinese breast cancer patients.

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Availability of data and material

Data can be made available upon request from the corresponding author.

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Code can be made available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East China University of Political Science and Law, Room B112, Yangyongman Building, No.555, Longyuan Road, Songjiang District, Shanghai, 201620, China

    Shijie Jing & Yuying Chen

  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Anao Zhang

  3. Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai, China

    Changyi Shen

  4. Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, USA

    Jennifer Currin-McCulloch

  5. Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital,Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China

    Chenfang Zhu

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  1. Shijie Jing
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  2. Anao Zhang
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  4. Changyi Shen
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  5. Jennifer Currin-McCulloch
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  6. Chenfang Zhu
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Contributions

Shijie Jing: conceptualization; data curation; investigation; project administration; supervision; validation; writing the original manuscript

Anao Zhang: conceptualization; formal analysis; methodology; project administration; supervision; writing the original manuscript

Yuying Chen: data curation; investigation; validation

Changyi Shen: data curation; investigation; validation

Jennifer Currin-McCulloch: conceptualization; validation; writing the original manuscript

Chenfang Zhu: validation; writing the original manuscript

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shijie Jing.

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Jing, S., Zhang, A., Chen, Y. et al. Mindfulness-based interventions for breast cancer patients in China across outcome domains: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the Chinese literature. Support Care Cancer 29, 5611–5621 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-021-06166-0

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