Objective To investigate the health behavior level of elderly patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) in order to instruct nurses how to give health education to them. Methods By con-venient sampling, 71 elderly patients with CHD in four hospitals in Wuhan were surveyed with the ques-tionnaire of health promoting lifestyle profile Ⅱ of FANG Heng-ying. The investigation results were ana-lysed. Results The findings showed that mean total score of health behavior of elderly patients with CHD obtained from the questionnaire was only 2.40,the level of health behavior was low. There were statistically significant differences among scores of elderly patients with CHD at different levels of family income and at different occupations before retirement. Conclusions The general level of health behavior of elderly pa-tients with CHD was low, especially in the aspect of health responsibility. Moreover, Patients with lower family income, peasants, and as a worker before retirement have lower health behavior level. This survey suggests that nurses should enhance the health education of the elderly patients with CHD, especially the poor and elderly farmer patients with CHD to improve their health behavior level.