Objective  To examine the two-week prevalence of diseases and its influencing factors among the elderly in rural regions with community-based elderly health promotion program in Central and Western China for providing evidences to the improvement of elderly health and medical service to the elderly.

  Methods  Using multistage random cluster sampling, we conducted a face-to-face questionnaire survey among 14 656 permanent rural residents aged 60 years and above in 20 counties with community-based elderly health promotion program in Central and Western China from November 2018 to January 2019. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to analyze influencing factors of two-week prevalence of diseases among the elderly residents.

  Results  The total two-week prevalence rate of diseases was 28.53% among the participants and the major contributors to the two-week prevalence rate were chronic diseases, including hypertension with a two-week prevalence rate of 39.23‰; of the participants suffering from diseases during two weeks, 61.16% were patients with long-lasting chronic conditions. Multivariate analysis demonstrated that the two-week prevalence was higher among the female participants than among the male participants (19.91% vs. 14.88%, χ² = 50.426, P < 0.001); the ethnic minority participants had a lower two-week prevalence than the Han participants (16.93% vs. 18.92%, χ² = 8.683, P = 0.003); the participants living far away from a medical institution (≥ 2 kilometers) reported a higher two-week prevalence than those with a residence away from a medical institution in a distance of < 2 kilometers (P < 0.05); the participants with falling experience during the two weeks reported a significantly higher two-week prevalence than those without the experience (49.66% vs. 16.71%, χ² = 87.129, P < 0.001); the participants suffering from chronic disease reported a significantly higher two-week prevalence than those not suffering from chronic disease (26.25% vs. 11.72%, χ² = 451.492, P < 0.001).

  Conclusion  Main influencing factors of two-week prevalence of diseases include gender, ethnicity, the distance from residence to a nearest medical institution, falling experience during two weeks, and chronic disease condition among elderly residents in rural regions with community-based elderly health promotion program in Central and Western China.