Abstract: ObjectiveTo explore the correlation between self-rated health and the most common chronic diseases among Chinese residents and to assess the extent of harm of chronic disease to the patients'self-rated health.MethodsUnivariate and multivariate analysis were applied to explore the correlation between chronic diseases and self-rated health and to assess the extent of harm of chronic disease to self-rated health among Chinese citizens aged 15 years and above recruited in the 4th National Health Household Interview Survey conducted in 2008.ResultsThe six main chronic diseases among the residents were hypertension(H),diabetes(DM),gastroenteritis(G),rheumatoid arthritis(RA),cerebrovascular diseases(CVD),and intervertebral disc diseases(I).After adjusting for age and sex,the ranking of the score of self-rated health reduced by the chronic diseases from high to low were CVD(16.74),RA(11.56),I(11.46),DM(10.82),G(9.25), and H(8.30).The score reduction of self-rated health for patients with 1 to 3 chronic diseases were 9.39,13.58,and 17.52.ConclusionThere is a close negative relationship between self-rated health and chronic disease among Chinese residents aged 15 years and above,and the reduction of self-rated health is different among patients with different chronic diseases.