Digital interventions for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors

AYA patients with cancer have a unique set of psychosocial and support needs to compared with their younger and older counterparts. Digital health interventions overcome many of the barriers to AYA participation in behavioral health interventions. Due to the rapid shifts in digital health, it is important to continually assess the state of the field.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of digital health interventions published in the literature. Interventions are using a variety of modalities and targeting many health behaviors and psychosocial outcomes. Most studies are focused on feasibility and acceptability, and use single-arm and prepost methodologies.

Although randomized controlled trials remain an important design for evaluating efficacy of interventions, the field of digital health interventions would benefit from employing alternative methodologies and analytic approaches to develop and optimize digital health interventions aligned with rapidly evolving technology.