Early postoperative core symptoms and their relationship with resilience in oesophageal cancer patients—A multicentre cross‐sectional study

AIM: To assess early postoperative core symptoms in oesophageal cancer patients and their relationship with resilience. BACKGROUND: Patients with oesophageal cancer face a high number of severe symptoms in the early post-operative period and require the development of an effective symptom management programme. Identifying core symptoms through network analysis helps in accurate patient care. DESIGN: A multicentre cross-sectional study. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from August 2022 to August 2023 at three hospitals in Anhui Province, China. A total of 469 patients were recruited for this study and 418 (89.1%) patients completed this investigation. Using network analysis to find early post-operative core symptoms in oesophageal cancer patients. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse resilience factors affecting core symptoms. RESULTS: = 1.08). Resilience was significantly associated with patients' feelings of sadness, with optimism having the greatest impact on sadness (p < .01). CONCLUSION: Sadness is the most core symptom in patients in the early post-operative period and special attention should be paid to improving their level of resilience. Local symptoms and dysfunction in the early post-operative period should be treated in a synergistic manner. IMPACT: This study identifies core symptoms and their relationship to resilience in patients with oesophageal cancer in the early post-operative period. Symptoms as the main core symptom in patients in the early post-operative period, which was sadness and was significantly associated with resilience. Precise interventions can be made to target patients' core post-operative symptoms, which can help improve the effectiveness of symptom management. REPORTING METHOD: We have complied with the relevant EQUATOR research reporting checklist. PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION: No patient or public contribution in the study.