3.2 | Results of meta-analysis
Due to significant heterogeneity between groups, anxiety, depression,
and fatigue will be selected for meta-analysis, and pain and quality of
life for descriptive analysis.
3.2.1 | Anxiety meta-analysis
Of the six studies included, four studies14, 16, 18,
19 reported the effect of IVR techniques on anxiety in breast cancer
patients, and 3 studies16, 18, 19 focusing on breast
cancer chemotherapy patients and choosing a random-effects model, showed
that IVR relieved patients’ anxiety compared to the control group, with
a statistically significant combined effect size [I2=79%, SMD=-2.06,95% CI=(-2.73,-1.40),P<0.0001] (Figure 3).
Sensitivity analysis was performed using a literature-by-literature
exclusion approach, when excluding Chirico et
al.[18] , Cao et al.14 ’s
studies, the heterogeneity decreased significantly and the difference
was statistically significant [I2 =16%, SMD=-1.52,
95% CI=(-1.88,-1.15), P<0.0001] (Figure 4). The
heterogeneity may be related to the different measurement tools, study
populations, and intervention durations.