Abstract:Objective To investigate the preoperative psychological distress, and its the causes and influencing factors in patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery so as to provide evidence for clinical nursing. Methods A total of 300 preoperative thyroid cancer patients were investigated using a general information questionnaire and a psychological distress thermometer. Results In this study, 300 questionnaires were distributed and recovered with an effective recovery rate of 100%. Their psychological distress scores ranged from 0 to 10 with an average of 2.77±2.07. One hundred and one patients (33.67%) had psychological distress score greater than or equal to 4, including 89 (29.67%) with moderate distress (scored 4~6), 8 (2.67%) with severe distress (scored 7~9), and 4 (1.33%) with extreme distress (scored 10). The list of problems that caused psychological distress was dominated by the fear of recurrence (70.33%) and surgical scar (50.67%). Logistic regression analysis showed that age, gender and personality type (self-reported) of patients were included in the influencing factor model of psychological distress in thyroid cancer patients (P<0.05). Conclusions Patients undergoing thyroid cancer surgery have varying degrees of preoperative psychological distress. Close attention should be payed to young, female and introverted patients. Meanwhile, targeted intervention should be conducted so that the patients can positively and effectively cope with the operation and recover quickly.