Context: Insomnia is prevalent among elderly individuals and has become a public health problem receiving increasing concern. Low sleep quality is related to a number of negative health outcomes.

Objective: This research aims to investigate the sleep status of community-dwelling elderly individuals (aged 60 years or older) in Shanghai, China, to explore the impact factors affecting sleep quality.

Methods: One street in Shanghai city was randomly selected, and 50% of the elderly residents were randomly selected as participants for a total number of 9,616 people. Investigations were conducted by indoor surveys through home doctors and paper questionnaires. For statistical analysis, univariate and multivariate regression analysis and the Spearman correlation model were performed using SAS 9.4 to analyze the effects of the impact factors on the sleep quality of elderly individuals.

Results: Sleep quality is greatly affected by physical pain in both the elderly individual and the individual’s spouse. Healthy elderly people tend to have better sleep quality, and the more chronic diseases an elderly individual suffers, the worse their sleep quality is. In addition, the physical pain of a cohabiting spouse is one of the most significant impact factors influencing sleep quality.

Conclusion: We suggest that community-dwelling elderly people maintain moderate outdoor activities and a healthy mental state, which will improve their sleep quality.