Posttraumatic Growth in Cancer Patients: A Meta-analysis Study

This meta-analysis study aimed to evaluate post-traumatic growth (PTG) in cancer patients.

We systematically searched for studies that reported PTG in cancer patients. Then, irrelevant studies were removed after the abstracts of articles were studied, and articles completely related to the research purpose were selected by examining the full texts of the articles. Finally, the articles that met the inclusion criteria were selected for analysis based on the criteria of critical evaluation.

Of 21 articles, nine studies were performed on women, one study on men, and 11 studies on both sexes, and all of them used post-traumatic growth inventory (PTGI). The studies showed that the mean PTGI score was 60.72 and heterogeneity was not statistically significant (I2 = 0.0, heterogeneity = 0.998). The subgroups classified according to continents showed that the mean PTGI scores in Asia, Europe, and the United States were 61.40, 59.12, and 60.42, respectively.

Recognition of the psychological responses in cancer patients requires much more attention from health care professionals, and they should consider programs to enhance PTG in cancer survivors.