ObjectiveTo analyze the current version of the West China Colorectal Cancer Database (DACCA) and explore how the occupational background of colorectal cancer patients affects the complexity of surgical difficulty and postoperative complications. MethodsWhen using the updated version of DACCA data on May 28, 2022 for analysis, the data items concerned covered occupation, operative duration, anatomical difficulty, pelvic stenosis, abdominal obesity, adhesion in surgical area, abnormal mesenteric status, tissue or organ hypertrophy, intestinal quality in surgical area, postoperative complications in hospital, short-term postoperative complications and long-term postoperative complications. According to the “Occupational Classification Code of the People’s Republic of China”, the occupations of patients were divided into professional and technical personnel, staff, service personal, production personnel, manufacturing personnel and retirees according to different occupations. The operative difficulty and postoperative complications of 6 groups were analyzed. ResultsAccording to the screening conditions, 5 734 valid data rows were obtained from DACCA. The results of occupation analysis showed that there were significant difference in operative duration (H=11.112, P=0.049), anatomical difficulty (H=29.166, P<0.001), pelvic stenosis (H=16.412, P=0.006), abdominal obesity (H=44.622, P<0.001), adhesion in surgical area (H=23.695, P<0.001), abnormal mesenteric status (χ2=39.252, P=0.035), tissue or organ hypertrophy (χ2=58.284, P<0.001) and intestinal quality in surgical area (H=21.041, P=0.001) between different groups. There were no significant differences in the occurrence of complications in hospital, near and short-term and long-term after operation among different occupations (P>0.05). Further subgroup analysis showed that only the difference of fever (χ2=10.969, P=0.041) and intestinal obstruction (χ2=12.025, P=0.021) were statistically significant among different occupations. ConclusionThe occupation of patients may affect the difficulty of colon cancer surgery, and the occurrence of postoperative complications is nothing to do with the occupation of patients, but the occurrence of postoperative fever and postoperative intestinal obstruction is related to occupations, and the possible causes need to be further explored.