〔Abstract〕 Objective To describe the status of the chronic diseases and activities of daily living of the elderly in urban and rural communities, and to explore the correlation between them. Methods The elderly people(age older than 60) from urban and rural communities in Lu'an were recruited to be investigated and to be taken a physical examination by multistage stratified cluster sampling. The chronic disease screening scale and Barthel index were used to evaluate chronic diseases and activities of daily living, respectively. Results A total of 1 080 elderly people completed the survey and 983 people were finally included in the analysis after removing those who did not complete the Barthel index rating scale. In the elderly, the prevalence of chronic diseases was 77.2%(759 cases), and the detection rate of daily living dysfunction was 31.7%(312 cases). Compared with the healthy elderly(17.4%), the rate of daily living dysfunction detection among elderly people with chronic diseases(29.2%) was higher. After adjusting for sociodemographic variables, multivariate logistic regression revealed hypertension(OR=1.747, 95%CI: 1.229～2.484), coronary heart disease(OR=1.614, 95%CI: 1.061～2.457), and stroke(OR=4.942, 95%CI: 2.735～8.871) were associated with impaired daily living ability(P<0.05). Compared with the healthy elderly, the elderly with one chronic diseases(OR=1.851, 95%CI: 1.201～2.853), two chronic diseases(OR=2.918, 95%CI: 1.783～4.773), and more than two chronic diseases(OR=5.490, 95%CI: 2.636～11.430) had a higher detection rate of daily living dysfunction. Nonparametric test found that compared with the healthy elderly, patients with hypertension, coronary heart disease, and stroke had different scores in urinary control, toileting, bed and chair transfer, walking on flat ground, and going up and down stairs(P<0.05). Conclusion Chronic diseases are associated with daily living dysfunction in Lu'an urban and rural communities' elderly people. Hypertension, coronary heart disease, stroke, and chronic comorbidities increase the risk of daily living dysfunction, and these diseases cause different functional impairments.