Online, group‐based psychological support for adolescent and young adult cancer survivors: Results from the recapture life randomized trial

Abstract

Telehealth interventions offer a practical platform to support adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors’ mental health needs after treatment, yet efficacy data are lacking. We eval-uated an online, group‐based, videoconferencing‐delivered cognitive‐behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention (‘Recapture Life’) in a 3‐arm randomized‐controlled trial comparing Recapture Life with an online peer‐support group, and a waitlist control, with the aim of testing its impact on quality of life, emotional distress and healthcare service use. Forty AYAs (Mage = 20.6 years) within 24‐months of completing treatment participated, together with 18 support persons. No groupwise impacts were measured immediately after the six‐week intervention. However, Recapture Life participants reported using more CBT skills at the six‐week follow‐up (OR = 5.58, 95% CI = 2.00–15.56, p = 0.001) than peer‐support controls. Recapture Life participants reported higher perceived negative impact of cancer, anxiety and depression at 12‐month follow‐up, compared to peer‐support controls. Post-hoc analyses suggested that AYAs who were further from completing cancer treatment responded better to Recapture Life than those who had completed treatment more recently. While online tele-health interventions hold promise, recruitment to this trial was challenging. As the psychological challenges of cancer survivorship are likely to evolve with time, different support models may prove more or less helpful for different sub‐groups of AYA survivors at different times.