Objective  To examine the quality of life (QoL) and its influencing factors among the elderly living in nursing institutions in Shenyang city of Liaoning province and to provide evidences for improving health status and QoL of the population.

  Methods  Using random cluster sampling and the Medical Outcome Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36), we conducted a survey among all eligible elderly aged≥60 years in 17 nursing institutions registered in Shenyang Civil Affairs Bureau from March 2017 to April 2018.

  Results  The participants of the study were 202 males (44%) and 256 females (56%), with an average age of 78.6 + 8.5 years and a chronic disease prevalence rate of 81.4% (373/458). For all the participants, the overall QoL score was 61.1 and the rank order of the QoL domain scores from high to low was social function (SF), bodily pain (BP), role emotional (RE), vatality (VT), general health (GH), role physical (RP), mental health (MH), physiological function (PF), and health transition (HT). Univariate analysis found that significant influencing factors of QoL were suffering from chronic diseases, age, and education level (P < 0.05); multivariate analysis revealed that physical exercise had obvious impacts on scores of physical component summary (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS), with the standardized partial regression coefficients of – 0.388 and – 0.407, respectively.

  Conclusion  Among the elderly living in nursing institutions in Shenyang city, the prevalence of chronic diseases is high and the quality of life is at a lower middle level and mainly influenced by physical exercise and sleeping status.