Objective To evaluate the diet quality of the elderly in rural area of Chengdu using Chinese Diet Balance Index (DBI-16). Methods The elderly were randomly selected for diet survey and the diet quality was evaluated using DBI-16. SPSS statistics 22.0 was used for statistical analysis. Data comparison between two groups was perfomed using t test,χ² test or Fisher exact test depending on data type.Results This study included 1 275 elderly patients totally. Among them, 1 214(95.22%)had under-intake of food recommended to be “eaten often,” “eaten more” or “eaten in moderation,” with 465 (36.47%) having medium or high level of insufficiency; 1 049 (82.27%) had over-intake of food recommended to be “eaten less” “eaten none” or “eaten in moderation”, with 202 (15.84%) having medium or high level of over-intake. As many as 1 272 (99.69%) elderly people experienced dietary imbalance, with 725 (56.86%) being of medium and high imbalance. The analysis of the food intake of each group found that the elderly in this region had dietary problems such as imbalanced intake of staple food, low intake of vegetables, fruits and milk legumes, too much intake of animal foods, low food diversity, and too much intake of pure energy foods (alcohol and sugar). Conclusion The elderly in this region showed a high proportion of dietary imbalances. It is recommended to increase the intake of fresh vegetables and fruits, dairy and soy products, increase food diversity, reduce the intake of pure energy foods, and to keep the intake of animal foods in an appropriate range. The targeted health education should be conducted for this population to improve the diet quality.