Objective To screen potentially inappropriate medication (PIM) in the community-dwelling elderly with Chinese criteria and investigate the correlation of PIM, especially nervous system PIM with frailty. Methods Elderly people was recruited from a community in Beijing from December 2018 to March 2019. Their general condition, illness and medications were recorded. Edmonton frailty scale (EFS) was used to assess frailty and its level. PIM were evaluated according to the Lists of PIM for older adults in China, a country-specific Chinese PIM criteria. The severity of comorbidities was assessed according to the Charlson comorbidity index (CCI). SPSS statistics 24.0 was used to perform the statistical analysis. The measure data were expressed as mean±standard deviation (±s), and enumerate data were expressed as percentage (%). Data comparison between two groups was perfomed using t test,nonparametric test or χ² test depending on date type. Logistic regression analysis was employed to analyze the relationships between PIM and frailty, and between nervous system PIM and frailty. Results A total of 562 elderly patients were finally enrolled in this study. They were 65 to 97 years old, with a median age of 85 (82,88) years, and the males accounted for 33.4% (188/562). The prevalence of PIM was 69.6%(391/562). PIM differed in age, gender, care situation, income, number of drugs, polypharmacy, CCI and EFS scores (P<0.05). The use rate of nervous system PIM was 23.8% (134/562). The 5 most commonly used nervous system PIMs were estazolam, zolpidem, diazepam, nicergoline and lorazepam. Among the 314 frail elderly patients (55.9%), 32 (5.7%) suffered from severe frailty. Logistic regression analysis showed that the level of frailty was significantly different from advanced age, CCI score, polypharmacy, and the number of PIM used (P<0.001). Multivariate analyses showed that nervous system PIM was significantly and independently correlated with frailty (OR=1.597,95%CI 1.051-2.428). Conclusion The prevalence of PIM is relatively high among the elderly in the community, and many of them have severe frailty. Nervous system PIM is significantly and independently related to frailty.