ArticlePLOS digital health2025
Digital technology as a tool to provide social support to individuals with cancer in low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review.
Article in PLOS digital health, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- User-Centered Design for Digital Patient-Navigation Tools in Oncology: Scoping Review.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Cancer is a rising cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Individuals diagnosed with cancer in LMICs often have limited access to cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment services. Digital technologies, such as the Internet and mobile phones, could be used to provide support to individuals with cancer in a more accessible way. The goal of this scoping review is to understand how digital technology is being utilized by individuals with cancer for social support in LMICs. Four electronic databases were searched up to June 2024 to identify studies that reported on the use of digital technology for cancer social support in LMICs. Articles were included if they were published in English, included adults diagnosed with any type of cancer, and reported the use of digital technology for social support. Study characteristics, population demographics, and technological interventions reported were extracted. In all, 15 articles from 12 studies were included in the scoping review. Only four countries utilized digital technology for social support: China, Iran, Kenya, and Serbia. The most common cancer type reported was breast. Online health communities, Internet-based resources, mobile applications, and telecommunication were the four digital technologies reported. Overall, the articles demonstrated that the use of digital technology for social support can be beneficial for individuals diagnosed with cancer in LMICs. We found that digital technology may improve quality of life, reduce anxiety and depression, and allow individuals to connect with other individuals diagnosed with cancer. We concluded that there is a limited understanding of how digital technology can be used to support individuals with cancer in LMICs. Future research is needed to explore how digital technology can be utilized by underrepresented regions to offer avenues of support for regionally common cancer types such as cervical.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.