Objective To explore influencing factors of activities of daily living (ADL) and the effect of lifestyle on ADL among the elderly and to provide references for planning relevant interventions.

Methods The data of the study were collected in the sixth wave of Chinese Longitudinal Healthy Longevity Survey (CLHLS) conducted between 2011 and 2012. We performed cluster analysis, chi-square test, and logistic regression analysis on the data with SPSS 21.0 software.

Results Of the 9 765 elderly participants of the survey, 87.06% reported poor ADL, significantly higher than the proportion of the elderly reporting moderate and good ADL (8.43% and 4.52%); but the proportion of the elderly taking part in a few forms of entertainment was only 15.23%, significantly lower than the proportion of the elderly participating in several and many forms of entertainment (35.08% and 49.6%). For the elderly, the lifestyle factors impacting on ADL included residence, gender, age, financial status, smoking, alcohol drinking, physical exercise, manual labour, and recreation.

Conclusion Smoking, alcohol drinking, manual labour, entertainment, and physical exercise affect activities of daily life among Chinese elderly. The results suggest that healthy lifestyle should be promoted for improving activities of daily life among elderly population in China.