OBJECTIVE： To provide reference for improving the medication compliance in the elderly patients with diabetes in outpatient department. METHODS： 120 diabetic patients over 60 yeas old in outpatient department of our hospital were randomly selected， self-made questionnaire was conducted， the related factors caused poor medication compliance in elderly diabetic patients were explored by Logistic regression analysis. RESULTS： Krone Bach coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.89. Totally 120 questionnaires were sent out， 113 were effectively received， with effective rate of 94.17％. 64 cases （56.64％） were in poor medication compliance in the 113 surveyed patients. Among them， 59 cases （92.19％） did not follow the medication prescribed period； 54 cases （84.38％） did not strictly in accordance with the doses； 43 cases （67.19％） took drugs in the wrong time； 37 cases （57.81％） freely changed the drugs； 18 cases （28.13％） repeated taking drugs. The age， educational background， medical factors， economic factors， adverse effects， medical personnel and treatment regimens had significant effects on medication compliance of the surveyed patients （P＜0.05）. CONCLUSIONS： Elderly diabetic patients with poor medication compliance is a common clinical phenomenon， its type is diverse and affects by many factors， physicians and pharmacists should give full consideration to it， giving appropriate intervention.