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.