Objective To investigate the relationship between atherosclerosis and cardiovascular risk factors in the elderly,thus to provide new method for detection of atherosclerosis in the elderly.Methods From November 2010 to October 2011,348 elderly who addmitted to or had physical examination in our hospital were recruited in the study.All participants were interviewed through questionnaire,and medical history was recorded,Brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) was measured.Simultaneously,height,body weight,waist circumferrence,triglyceride ( TG ),total cholesterol ( TC ),high density lipoprotein-cholesterol ( HDL-C ),low density lipoprotein-cholesterol(LDL-C) were measured.The association between baPWV and cardiovascular and atherosclerosis was investigated.Results The incidence of higher baPWV was increasing as the number of risk factors of cardio vascular disease adding.Logistic regression analysis show that:Age ( OR =5.223,95％ CI 3.606 -7.564),LDL-C( OR =4.554,95％ CI 2.413 - 8.593 ),Smoking ( OR =6.007,95％ CI 3.775 - 9.560),Obesity( OR =3.019,95 ％ CI 2.363 - 3.857 ),Hypertension ( OR =6.938,95％ CI 3.591 - 13.404 ),High-salt diet( OR =2.555,95％ CI 2.108 -3.096)were independent risk factors of baPWV increase (P ＜0.05); Exercise and good sleep were the protective factors for baPWV increasing.BaPWV levels were significantly lower in the exercise group (exercise time ＞ 1 h/d)than in the few exercise group (exercise time ＜ 1h/d) (t =2.719,P =0.012 ),and lower in good sleep group participants than in insomnia participants (t =2.561,P =0.017 ) (P ＜ 0.05 ).BaPWV levels were significantly higherin the group with essential hypertension ( 1852.0 ± 46.7 cm/s),with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus ( 1693.0 ± 38.2 cm/s),with coronary heart disease ( 1729.0 ± 40.4 cm/s) than in the healthy group ( 1356.0 ± 3 1.3 cm/s) ( P ＜ 0.05 ).There was no statistical difference between the essential hypertension group and the hypertension complicated with cerebral infarction group,as well as between the coronary heart disease group and the myocardial infarction group.Conclusion Age,LDL-C increasing,smoking,obesity,hypertension and high-salt diet were independent risk factors of baPWV increase;Exercise and good sleep were protective factors.BaPWV could be one of the methods for early detection of atherosclerosis.