Abstract: Objective: To investigate the treatment-seeking delay status of patients with esophageal cancer, analyze influencing factors based on medical health ecology model. Methods: Purposive sampling method was used to select 345 hospitalized patients with esophageal cancer from four hospitals in Jinan, Shandong Province. The questionnaire included general information, medical information, health literacy scale, Revised Health Hardiness Inventory (RHHI-24), and Social Support Scale (SSS). Results: Incidence of treatment-seeking delays was 33.75% in this study. Based on the healthy ecological model, the upstream influencing factors of patient delay in patients with esophageal cancer were: whether the family members engaged in medical field, resident type, and family income. Midstream factors included smoking status, alcohol consumption, healthy values,exogenous health control concept, objective and subjective support, and utilization of support. Downstream factors were gender,age, and chronic complications. Conclusion: Patients delay was quite common in patients with esophageal cancer. Appropriate measures should be taken to promote timely medical intervention to improve 5-year survival of patients.