Global Prevalence of Mental Health Problems Among Cancer Survivors: A Meta-Analysis From 31 Countries

With the improvement of medical treatment, the survival rate of cancer patients continues to rise; however, their psychological issues require further management. Currently, there is uncertainty regarding the prevalence of mental health problems among cancer survivors.

To quantitatively summarize the global prevalence of mental health problems in cancer survivors.

We searched CINAHL, PsychlNFO, Embase, Web of Science, and PubMed for studies reporting the prevalence of various mental health problems in cancer survivors who have survived at least 3 months. Subsequently, stratified analyses were conducted based on study design, region, cancer system, and time since diagnosis. Moreover, meta-regression was utilized to investigate sources of heterogeneity. We used Rstudio software 4.3.0, Stata 17.0 software and metaprop package.

A total of 147 studies involving 135,015 cancer survivors from over 30 countries were identified, primarily focusing on six mental health problems. Among 78 studies addressing anxiety, the prevalence was 24.4% (95% CI: 20.2%-28.8%). Among the 96 studies on depression, the prevalence was 23.7% (95% CI: 20.1%-27.4%). In the case of sleep disorders, 42 studies reported a prevalence of 34.1% (95% CI: 27.9%-40.6%). The overall prevalence decreased over time since diagnosis. Most of the analyzed data exhibited significant heterogeneity (I² > 75%).

The analysis indicated that cancer survivors experience a diverse range of mental health problems, which were prevalent among them. The results emphasized the importance of recognizing and treating mental health problems in cancer survivors and served as a reminder for healthcare workers to address mental health problems in this population. The registration number was CRD42023466209.