Objective To systematically evaluate the effects of mobile health (mHealth) interventions on bowel symptoms, self-care ability, and quality of life (QoL) in colorectal cancer patients after anus-preserving surgery. Design a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods We comprehensively searched PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library, Sinomed, CNKI, and Wanfang databases for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from inception to September 2024. Study quality was assessed using the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool, and data were synthesized with RevMan 5.4. Sensitivity and subgroup analyses were performed to explore heterogeneity. Results Twelve RCTs involving 1,888 participants were included. The meta-analysis demonstrated that while mHealth interventions did not significantly improve bowel symptoms overall (SMD = -0.40, 95% CI -1.22, 0.41), they yielded significant enhancements in patients’ self-care ability (SMD=1.38, 95% CI 0.49, 2.27) and QoL (SMD=0.96, 95% CI 0.51, 1.41). Crucially, subgroup analyses revealed that: 1) a 6-month intervention duration was associated with a significant improvement in bowel symptoms, and 2) social-platform-based mHealth interventions were substantially more effective in boosting self-care ability and QoL compared to other formats (e.g., apps, websites). Sensitivity analysis confirmed the robustness of these findings. Conclusion mHealth interventions may be effective in enhancing self-care ability and QoL for colorectal cancer survivors after sphincter-preserving surgery, with particularly significant outcomes when interventions delivered via social media platforms or sustained for at least six months. These findings provide evidence-based guidance for clinical practice, but should be interpreted cautiously due to low-certainty evidence. High-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm the results.
Wang et al. (Sun,) studied this question.