Abstract: Objective To study the timing of visiting a doctor after being ill and its influencing factors among urban elderly residents.Methods Stratified random sampling method was used and 905 permanent residents aged 60 years or older and having the history of seeking medical service during previous one year were selected from 3 cities in Shandong province for a face-to-face questionnaire survey in October 2014.Results Most of the participants(84.3%) reported visiting a doctor immediately when having a self-perceived illness;9.1% reported seeking medical service only when having a severe pain or illness;and 7.5% did not seek any medical service even having a self-perceived illness for a long time.The participants' timing of visiting a doctor differed significantly by family size,annual familial medical expenditure,whether having health record established by a medical institution,and the time required from home to the nearest medical institution(all P<0.05). The results of order multivariate logistic regression showed that annual familial medical expenditure(odds ratioOR=0.401 and 0.531 for the expenditure of <5 000 and 2 000-5 000 compared to that of >5 000 RMB yuan),with health record established by a medical institution(OR=0.421),and the time to the nearest medical institution(OR=0.429 and 0.614 for <5 and 5-10 compared to >10 minutes) were factors influencing the timing of visiting a doctor among the participants(P<0.05 for all).Conclusion The timing of visiting a doctor after being ill is generally right and influenced mainly by annual familial medical expenditure,whether having a health record established by a medical institution,and the time required from home to the nearest medical institution among elderly urban residents in Shandong province.