Objective  To investigate the association between resilience and subjective well-being (SWB) among Chinese community older adults.

  Methods  Face-to-face interviews were conducted among 16 720 old adults (aged ≥ 65 years) recruited with stratified random sampling at 42 communities in Shanghai municipality, Panzhihua prefecture of Sichuan province and Ordos prefecture of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region during Jun 2020 – July 2021. Generalized linear regression model was used to examine the association of subjective well-being with the three dimensions of resilience: strength, optimism and tenacity.

  Results  For the 15 319 participants with valid responses, the median of SWB was 77.1. The median score of overall resilience was 57.0, and the medians of strength, optimism and tenacity were 19.0, 9.0 and 29.0 respectively. The results of generalized multivariate linear regression analysis showed that after adjusting for gender, age, education, marital status, self-rated health, smoking, alcohol drinking, vegetable intake, fruit intake and physical activity, the participants with a higher overall resilience score were more likely to have higher SWB compared to the participants with the overall resilience score of the first (the lowest) quartile, with the coefficients (β) ( 95% confidence interval 95% CI) of 2.1 (1.5 – 2.7), 6.2 (5.5 – 6.8), and 10.8 (10.2 – 11.5) for the participants with the overall resilience score of the second, third, and fourth quartile; the participants with a higher dimensional resilience score were also more likely to have higher SWB in comparison to the participants with the first quartile score of dimensional resilience, with the following coefficients (β) (95% CI): 1.8 (1.0 – 2.6), 3.9(2.9 – 4.9), 6.7 (5.5 – 7.9) for the participants with the strength resilience score of the second, third, and fourth quartile; 1.1 (0.4 – 1.8), 2.3 (1.5 – 3.1), and 3.4 (2.5 – 4.3) for the participants with the optimism resilience score of the second, third, and fourth quartile; and 2.3 (1.2 – 3.4) for the participants with the SWB tenacity resilience score of fourth quartile, respectively.

  Conclusion  Among community old adults in China, overall resilience and dimensional resilience are positively associated with subjective well-being.