Evaluation of a Mobile App Program for Coping With Cancer

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of a self-management mobile app on mood, quality of life, psychological flexibility, and adaptive coping in a population of people with cancer.

The intention of this research is to meet the most common unmet supportive care needs such as anxiety and depression, pain, insomnia, and fear of cancer recurrence utilizing evidence-based intervention that is accessible and self-paced.

We hypothesize that the Tools for Coping with Cancer mobile app program will:

• Be feasible and acceptable to participants, as rated by interest, accrual, and completion rates, acceptability ratings, and participant satisfaction with the program.
• Have a statistically significant effect on symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychological flexibility, adaptive coping, and quality of life. We further hypothesize that these improvements will be retained at 3-months post-intervention.

The primary objective is to determine the feasibility and acceptability of a self-management mobile app intervention as measured by participant interest, accrual, completion, satisfaction, acceptability, and app usage.

The secondary objective is to evaluate preliminary outcomes related to mood, quality of life, psychological flexibility, and adaptive coping, and will be measured using self-report questionnaires.

This is a prospective pilot feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness study.

The intervention is a 13-session self-management program housed within the Calm Health app. Participants will have access to the program for 8 weeks and will be asked to work their way through the program at their own pace.

Participants will complete a series of self-report surveys to evaluate the primary and secondary objectives of the study. Additionally, researchers will have access to data reporting participant's usage patterns of the app, including the frequency and duration of session play.

Inclusion criteria

• Stated willingness to comply with all study procedures and availability for the duration of the study (8 weeks active intervention and 3-month follow up)
• Have a confirmed diagnosis of cancer; or have been treated for cancer within the last two years, including adjuvant therapies
• Over the age of 18
• Able to understand and read English
• Able to navigate a mobile app with minimal assistance from study staff
• Able to provide informed consent

Exclusion criteria

• Are taking part in psychotherapy at any time during the study
• Have an un-treated or under-treated mental health disorder based on pre-study screening that may require a referral to individual mental health care.