Abstract: Objective To explore the influencing factors of the quality of life in patients with diabetes, and to evaluate the quality of life before and after community self-management activities. Methods Diabetes patients recruited from communities of Nanjing were interviewed with a structured questionnaire designed by center for disease control and prevention (CDC) of China before and after they participated in health self-management activity. The medical outcomes study 36-item short form health survey (SF-36) was applied to measure the scores of life quality and to analyze the related influencing factors for patients. Results A total of 521 patients were recruited. 494 completed the 6-session activities, with the respond rate of 94.8%. The scores of general health (GH), physical functioning (PF), role physical (RP), role emotional (RE), social functioning (SF) in 494 subjects were lower than those of Chinese general population (all P<0.05). Stepwise regression analysis showed that complications (t=-3.235,P=0.001), other chronic disease (t=-3.197,P=0.002), blood glucose monitoring (t=2.303,P=0.022), dietary habit (t=2.341,P=0.020), physical exercise(t=-5.643,P<0.001) were main factors that influenced the patients' quality of life. Statistically significant improvement on the scores of the quality of life were observed in all eight dimensions after community self-management activities (all P<0.001). Conclusions Communtiy self-management activities are effective in improving the quality of life among patients with diabetes.