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One‐to‐one peer support in cancer care: a review of scholarship published between 2007 and 2014
Author(s) -
Meyer A.,
Coroiu A.,
Korner A.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of cancer care
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.849
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1365-2354
pISSN - 0961-5423
DOI - 10.1111/ecc.12273
Subject(s) - medicine , psycinfo , checklist , medline , intervention (counseling) , peer review , research design , peer support , family medicine , consolidated standards of reporting trials , psychological intervention , randomized controlled trial , medical education , nursing , psychology , social science , surgery , sociology , political science , law , cognitive psychology
The primary goal of this review was to determine whether one‐to‐one peer support programmes benefit cancer patients. The secondary goal was to assess the quality of the research methodology and of the peer programme description as reported in original research studies. MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases were systematically searched in order to identify relevant studies published between M ay 2007 and J uly 2014. Eligible articles were evaluated using pre‐existing criteria based on the C onsolidated S tandards of R eporting T rials S tatement C hecklist. This review included 13 studies: four randomised controlled trials, one non‐randomised comparative study and eight one‐group descriptive studies. All studies reported high participant satisfaction with the peer support intervention, and the majority noted positive outcomes regarding psychological adjustment. The quality of the description of the peer support programmes as well as the research methodology of the studies was rated as fair. Methodological weaknesses included biased recruitment strategies and limited information regarding peer volunteers, non‐users of peer support and those who withdrew from support programmes. One‐to‐one peer support programmes have the unique advantage of being a low‐cost intervention approach, but also showing potential for relieving the health‐care system by reallocating some aspects of the cancer care to community settings. Future research should address the methodological weaknesses in study design and reporting.