Objective  To examine the status and influencing factors of health among adult residents in mountainous regions of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region (Ningxia) for developing strategies on health promotion in the population.

  Methods  The participants of the survey were 1 500 residents of 18 years old and above randomly recruited with stratified sampling in 6 urban communities/rural villages in mountainous regions of Ningxia. Face-to-face interviews were conducted among the participants using a self-designed questionnaire during February 2016.

  Results  Of the 1 298 participants with complete information, 287 (22.11%) reported having an illness during past two weeks (two-week prevalence) and 267 (20.57%) reported suffering from chronic diseases. Unconditional multivariate logistic regression analysis results revealed that for the participants, aged ≥ 40 years was a risk factor but with the education of senior high school/secondary school was a protective factor of two-week prevalence; whereas, aged ≥ 30 years was a risk factor but being married was a protective factor for suffering from chronic diseases.

  Conclusion  In mountainous regions of Ningxia, the health status of urban and rural adult residents is mainly influenced by age, education and marital status and health promotion needs to be improved in the population.