Objective To understand the crude prevalence of Parkinson′s disease (PD) and Parkinson′s disease with its cognitive impairment (PD-CI) in the retired veteran cadre of the Chinese army and to analyze the prevalence of PD and the characteristics of neuropsychological assessment of its cognitive impairment. Methods This nationwide cross-sectional survey included 9 676 people in the platform study, of whom 227 (2.35%) were diagnosed with PD. Face-to-face surveys were used to improve sociodemographic data and various neuropsychological scales, to analyze the prevalence of PD and related cognitive impairments, and the characteristics of PD cognitive impairments. SPSS statistics 19.0 was used for data analysis. Data comparison among three or four groups was performed using χ ² test or Fisher exact test; and Dunn′s test was employed for the intra-group comparison.Results Among 227 PD patients, 104 (45.8%) had PD mild cognitive impairment (PD-MCI) and 71 (31.3%) had Parkinson′s disease dementia (PDD). The incidence of PD-CI increased with age and decrease in the schooling years (P<0.05). PD-MCI and PDD patients had significant difference in attention, language function, executive function impairment, memory function and visuospatial function (P<0.05) but no significant difference in calculation function (P>0.05). The difference in the scores on different scales for PD cognitive impairment in patients with language function and executive function was statistically significant (P<0.05). Intra-group comparison suggested the highest detection rates of the positivity by the naming test and the drawing clock test (P<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in the incidence of naming, word fluency, and difficulty in observing instructions in patients with PDD (P>0.05). There was a statistically significant difference in the incidence of difficulty in coordination among multiple scales of executive function (P<0.05). The intra-group comparison suggested that the clock drawing test has a statistically significant difference in the incidence of difficulty in coordination with the other 4 groups (P<0.05). Conclusion The prevalence of cognitive dysfunction is high in patients with Parkinson′s disease. It is important to understand the characteristics of PD and to choose appropriate neuropsychological assessment scale.