Objective To investigate the general condition, death cause, life expectancy and relevant influencing factors of military retired cadres in order to provide information for their health guidance and disease control and prevention. Methods A retrospective study was carried out for all retired cadres from Shanghai region who died in Changhai Hospital from March 1985 to January 2013. Their clinical data, including medical records, death records, death registration, were collected and analyzed. A questionnaire was surveyed for the dead persons’ family members. Results The death age ranged from 59 to 98 (79.39±7.30) years. Compared with the baseline data (1 year before their death), the white blood cell (WBC) count, fasting plasma glucose (FPG), serum creatinine (SCr), blood urea (BU), and serum total bilirubin (TBIL) were significantly higher in their last hospitalization (P＜0.05), but the red blood cell (RBC) count, hemoglobin, total protein (TP), albumin (Alb), and A/G ratio were significantly decreased (P＜0.05). The 5 leading causes of death were tumor (41.9%), nervous system (16.9%), circulatory system (15.7%), respiratory system (10.5%), and endocrine and metabolic diseases (7.6%). The 5 leading disease entities of death were tumor (42.4%), coronary heart disease (12.8%), chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (8.7%), cerebral infarction (8.1%) and type 2 diabetes (7.6%). The 2 leading causes of tumor death were lung cancer (35.6%) and pancreatic cancer (9.6%). Conclusion Advance aged people are the main proportion in this group. Lung cancer is the most primary tumor causing death. And cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are the main cause for inpatient mortality. Hypertension and cerebral infarction are negatively, while regular exercises and drinking milk are positively correlated with life expectancy.