Objective To explore the effects of peer support education on the compliance and quality of life in patients with liver cirrhosis complicated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding.Methods A total of 60 patients with liver cirrhosis complicated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding during January 2015 and December 2016 were selected in this study using convenient sampling. Patients who treated from January to December 2015 were included in the control group (n=30) and those treated from January to December 2016 were included in the observation group (n=30). Patients in the control group adopted routine nursing. Based on the routine nursing care, the observation group received additional peer support education. The medication adherence questionnaire and the MOS Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36) were used to compare the compliance and quality of life before and after the intervention within two groups.Results After six months of intervention, the intervention group had significantly better compliance compared with the control group [(1.23±0.76) vs (2.23±1.45);t=3.144,P<0.05]. The scores of SF-36 (except health dimension) were significantly higher in the observation group compared with the control group (P<0.05).Conclusions Peer support education may be helpful in improving the medication compliance and quality of life in patients with liver cirrhosis complicated with upper gastrointestinal bleeding.