Abstract: Objective To understand the demand and the utilization status of the retired cadres in Hongkou district of Shanghai.Methods A family-to-family questionnaire survey was used to collect the information from residential retired cadres harvested using hierarchical cluster random sampling method. A total of 1576 participants were investigated.Results The prevalence in two weeks and the one of chronic diseases in investigated retired cadres was 37.4% and 87.1%, respectively. The rate of visiting doctors in the two weeks and annual hospitalization rate was 85.2% and 34.2%, respectively.Conclusion The retired cadres needs frequent health care services. The health care services should focus on the treatment of chronic non-communicable diseases and be provided in the community-based health facility, such as providing “family words” for those who are suffering from a variety of chronic illnesses and need long-term treatment.