Abstract: Objective To investigate endowment intentions and their influencing factors among urban elderly people with different abilities of daily living,and to provide evidences for endowment resource allocation.Methods A total of 887 residents aged ≥40 years whose parents or parents-in-law lived in urban communities were selected from five urban communities in Ji'nan city of Shandong province with convenience sampling and investigated through a questionnaire survey during March 2011 to December 2015.Endowment intentions and their influencing factors among 1 381 elderly people with different abilities of daily living who lived in Ji'nan urban community were analyzed.Results Of all the elderly people,418 (30.3%)were reported with complete ability of daily living (ADL),478 (34.6%) with basic ADL,358 (25.9%) with partial ADL,and 127 (9.2%) with ADL disability.Based on the presentation of their children,almost all the elderly people (1341,97.1%) would choose home-based care and only a few elderly people (40,2.9%) select institution-based care,with 805 (58.3%) expecting to live with their children and not to hire a caregiver,151 (10.9%) with their children and to hire a caregiver,317 elderly (23.0%) with only themselves,68 (4.9%) with themselves but to hire a caregiver,17 (1.2%) with their children and go to a day-care center,and 23 (1.7%) expecting to live in an institution endowment,respectively.The results of unconditioned logistic regression analysis showed that the elderly aged ≥70 years and living with their children or grandchildren were more likely to choose to live with their children;the elderly aged ≥70 years,being single,living with their children or grandchildren,and with obvious mental retardation were more likely to choose to live with their children;the elderly without economic independence were more likely to choose to live with their children;while,the elderly people with senior high school or vocational school or higher education,living with someones other than their children were more likely to choose to hire a caregiver;the elderly being single but with basic ADL were more unlikely to choose to hire a caregiver;the elderly of male,with the education of senior high school or vocational school,and with basic ADL were more likely to choose to hire a caregiver;and the elderly without economic independence were more unlikely to choose to hire a caregiver.Conclusion Among the elderly people in urban Ji'nan,living with their children and not hiring a caregiver is a predominant endowment intention but the intention varies with the decline of their ability of daily living and the intention is mainly influenced by gender,age,education,marital status,residential pattern,economic condition,and mental status of the elderly.