Abstract: Objective To examine the cognition and evaluation on policy attribute of essential drug(ED) system among community elderly and to provide a basis for the improvement of ED system.Methods Using multistage stratified random sampling,435 residents aged 60 years and older were selected from communities in 5 cities of Shandong province and investigated with a questionnaire.The data were analyzed with SPSS 19.0.Results The knowledge rate of ED policy among the elderly was 31.3%,and the rate was 61.9% for the elderly with education of high school or higher and 59.0% for those with urban employee's basic medical insurance.There were significant differences in the knowledge rate of ED system among the elderly of different characteristics,with a higher rate among urban elderly than the rural elderly(44.8% vs. 25.8%) and a higher rate(41.9%) among the elderly with the familial monthly income of 1 001-2 000 RMB Yuan than the elderly with the high or low familial monthly income(P<0.05).The score for price domain of natural policy attribute of ED system was low(2.77±0.96),while for the social policy attribute of ED system,75.0% of the elderly considered the patients having the most benefit of the system.Although 64.0% of the elderly were satisfied with ED policy,25.6% and 14.7% of the elderly worried about the development of pharmacies and village clinics.The elderly considered insufficient list of ED,availability of ED in medical institutions,and the willingness of prescribing ED of the doctors as three key aspects needed to be improved for the ED system.Conclusion The community elderly have a good evaluation on social policy attribute of the ED system,suggesting the natural attribute of the ED system should be improved at present time.