Post-Traumatic Growth in Esophageal Cancer Patients: A Latent Profile Analysis for Targeted Psychosocial Care

This study's aim is to assess the latent profiles of post-traumatic growth in patients with esophageal cancer and to analyze the relationship with perceived social support and cognitive appraisal, thereby highlighting distinct PTG subgroups that may warrant consideration of personalized psychosocial support strategies.

Patients with esophageal cancer visited a tertiary Class A hospital from January to April 2026 in Tai'an were selected using convenience sampling. These patients were surveyed using a general data questionnaire, the Chinese Version of Post-Traumatic Growth Inventory, the Perceived Social Support Scale and the Cognitive Appraisal Scale. Latent profile analysis was used to determine different types of post-traumatic growth among patients, and influencing factors for the various profiles were identified through univariate analysis and multinomial logistic regression analysis.

Post-traumatic growth in esophageal cancer patients was categorized into three latent profiles: the "low-growth group", the "moderate-growth group", and the "high-growth group". Compared with the high-growth group, higher scores for positive appraisal and friend support were associated with a lower likelihood of belonging to the low-growth group (OR = 0.489 and 0.824, respectively, p< 0.001) and moderate-growth group (OR = 0.528 and 0.889, p< 0.008); patients with squamous cell carcinoma were more likely to fall into the low-growth group (OR =2.563, p = 0.048) or moderate-growth group (OR =3.692, p = 0.001); publicly funded patients were significantly associated with the moderate-growth group (OR =4.185, p = 0.034) and showed a marginally significant trend for the low-growth group (OR =4.142, p = 0.054).

The post-traumatic growth levels of patients with esophageal cancer exhibited significant heterogeneity. These distinct profiles may inform the development of targeted psychosocial interventions, with potential implications for patient-centered care research.