Objective To explore and analyze the quality of life and family care in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes and their correlation, and to offer a basis for making family care plans after being discharged from hospital.Methods Totally 441 elderly patients with type 2 diabetes between July 2014 and June 2016 were investigated with the Simplified Health Questionnaire (SF-36) and Family APGAR Index, and the Pearson correlation analysis was conducted on their correlation.Results The patients scored (6.27±1.74), (535.46±22.33) and (3.35±0.83) in family care, quality of life and health transition, respectively. Family care was positively correlated with the eight dimensions indicating quality of life (r=0.138-0.660,P<0.01), and negatively correlated with health transition (r=-0.100,P<0.05).Conclusions Elderly patients with type 2 diabetes show a low quality of life, and their family function is between moderately dysfunctioning and well-functioning. Therefore, the hospital, community, family and individual need to work together to improve patients' family function and quality of life.