Objective To investigate the dietary self-management of retired veteran cadres with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and evaluate the effect of health education. Methods Chosen for the study were 1300 patients with T2DM attending the Outpatient Department for Senior Cadres of PLA General Hospital from August 2014 to February 2018. All the patients were assessed and documented by full-time nurses, and health education was offered to them with the concept of family-centered nursing. A questionnaire survey was conducted with all patients before and 3 months after education. SPSS statistics 13.0 was used for data analysis, and depending on data type, Student′s t-test or Chi-square test was used for comparison. Results Valid questionnaires were collected from 1269 patients (1024 male and 227 female) with a recovery rate of 97.6%, the ages ranging 52-91 (71.5±7.6)years. A significant increase was observed after education of the patients who would calculate calories according to doctor′s order (59.2% vs 38.4%), who would use food exchange lists for meals (66.9% vs 46.5%), who knew the sugar content of food (79.6% vs 64.5%), who participated in diabetes education (50.6% vs 29.0%), who knew about diabetes mellitus (67.3% vs 16.3%), and who paid follow-up visits (84.5% vs 74.7%, P＜0.05). A significant decline was observed after education in the average body mass index [(22.98±3.72)vs (23.78±3.06)kg/m²], systolic blood pressure [(133.90±14.44) vs (136.20±13.95)mmHg, 1 mmHg=0.133 kPa], diastolic blood pressure [(78.42±8.82) vs (80.23±7.90)mmHg], total cholesterol [(3.95±0.61) vs (4.19±0.48)mmol/L], triglycerides[(0.86± 0.29) vs (0.93±0.31) mmol/L], glycated hemoglobin [(7.02±2.77)% vs (7.38±2.94)%] and urinary albumin/creatinine ratio [(20.75±22.75) vs (25.39±24.29), P<0.05]. There was no significant difference in fasting blood glucose before and after education, but 2-hour postprandial blood glucose was significantly improved after education [(7.83±4.71) vs (8.40±4.37)mmol/L,P<0.05]. Conclusion The elderly patients with T2DM have poor dietary self-management, and targeted health education contri-butes to enhanced their adaptability to diabetes mellitus.