Abstract: Objective The purpose of this investigation was to assess the presence and relative severity of dry eye evaluated by several diagnostic methods in elder diabetic patients as compared with that in elder nondiabetic patients. Methods Patients （≥70 years of age） scheduled for a routine eye examination at the clinical site were recruited for the study. Study endpoints included tear film break-up time, tear film osmolarity, corneal fluorescein staining, schirmer testing. Results Three hundred and seventy-eight patients were enrolled in this study, 202 in the diabetic group and 176 in the nondiabetic group. A significantly higher mean tear film osmolarity was observed in the diabetic patient group, （316.9±76.0） mOsm/L versus （291.7±76.8） mOsm/L （P<0.05）. The mean tear film break-up time was significantly longer in the nondiabetic patient group, （8.9±3.2） s versus （6.4±2.3） s （P<0.05）. No statistically significant differences were observed between patient groups for corneal staining, schirmer strip. Conclusions The overall presence of dry eye was found to be higher in the diabetic patient group.