Observational studyPloS one2026
Evaluation of psychological changes using facial emotion analysis in postoperative rehabilitation treatment for patients with upper gastrointestinal cancer: A prospective study.
Observational study in PloS one, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Rehabilitation after radical gastrectomy or esophagectomy for upper gastrointestinal cancer can improve physical function and quality of life; however, objective day-to-day measures of psychological change are lacking. We aimed to test whether facial emotion analysis can quantitatively evaluate patients' emotional responses before and after each rehabilitation session and whether these changes relate to conventional subjective/physiological stress markers and discharge physical outcomes. We conducted a single-center prospective observational study of 32 patients who underwent radical gastrectomy or esophagectomy between August 2024 and February 2025. Immediately before and after each rehabilitation session, 30 s iPad video interviews (median, six per patient) were recorded and analyzed using MAL Face Emotion software to obtain normalized scores (0%-100%) for Neutral, Happy, Sad, Angry, and Surprised emotions. Subjective stress (0-100 mm visual analog scale) and salivary α-amylase activity were collected concurrently; discharge physical function was assessed using the 6 min walk distance and Five Times Sit-to-Stand tests. Pre- and post-session values were compared using Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, and associations were examined with age-adjusted regression and Spearman correlation. Thirty-one patients completed the study without adverse events. After rehabilitation, the Happy score increased (median +3.5%, p = 0.013) and stress decreased (-1.5 mm, p = 0.025), whereas salivary α-amylase and other emotions were unchanged. Changes in the Happy score (p = 0.21) and stress (p = 0.19) did not predict discharge physical function, whereas changes in the Sad score correlated moderately with changes in salivary α-amylase (ρ = 0.45). The findings of this single-center study provide preliminary evidence supporting the feasibility of facial emotion analysis as a non-invasive, quantitative tool for real-time psychological monitoring during postoperative rehabilitation. Furthermore, our results demonstrate its potential to support a more personalized delivery of cancer rehabilitation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.