Quality of life management capability in elderly frail patients with colorectal cancer: a latent profile analysis.

OBJECTIVE

To explore the potential categories and influencing factors of quality of life management capability in elderly frail patients with colorectal cancer using latent profile analysis.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study used convenience sampling to recruit patients from three tertiary hospitals between October 2023 and May 2025. Data were collected using multiple-scale surveys. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to identify potential categories and analyze influencing factors.

RESULT: A total of 280 patients were included. Quality of life management capability was divided into three categories: the low quality of life, low emotional level group (20.35%); the medium quality of life, low social function group (39.28%); and the high quality of life, high role management group (40.35%). Multivariable logistic regression showed that educational level, tumor stage, enterostomy status, family income, sex, disease acceptance, emotional level, self-efficacy, and social support level were the main influencing factors (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

There is significant heterogeneity in the quality of life management capability of patients. Personalized interventions should be implemented based on category characteristics to improve quality of life.