Abstract： Objective To investigate the risk factors of diabetic retinopathy(DR)in elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus(T2DM)and establish the related prediction model.Methods A total of 426 elderly T2DM patients admitted to the Endocrinology Department of our hospital from January 2021 to March 2023 were enrolled in this study and divided into DR group(n=104)and T2DM group(n=322)according to the occurrence of DR.Results The DM duration≥10 years,hypertension,DPN,smoking,HbA1c,SUA,and high myopia were higher in the DR group than in the T2DM group(P<0.05).Pearson correlation analysis showed that DR was positively correlated with DM duration≥10 years,HbA1c,hypertension,DPN,smoking,SUA and high myopia in elderly T2DM patients(P<0.05).Logistic regression analysis showed that DM duration≥10 years,HbA1c,hypertension,DPN,smoking history,SUA,and high myopia were risk factors for DR in elderly T2DM patients.The analysis of the working characteristic curve of the subjects showed that the area under the curve for the occurrence of DR in elderly T2DM patients was 0.863,with a sensitivity of 78.8%and a specificity of 81.1%.Conclusions The duration of diabetes≥10 years,hypertension,DPN,smoking,HbA1c,SUA and high myopia are risk factors for the occurrence of DR in elderly patients with T2DM.The prediction model of DR has good accuracy in elderly patients with T2DM.