OBJECTIVES: The elderly have accounted for more than 10% of the population in Taiwan. It is unknown about the impact of hypertension (HTN) on the quality of life and cognitive functions among the elderly in Taiwan. This study was initiated to explore the elderly self-reported health statuses among the hypertensive elderly population. METHODS: We utilized the data obtained from the 2005 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) in Taiwan. The study subjects contain those who reported to have the diagnosis of HTN among a total of 2727 elderly individuals (i.e., age ³a65 years). The descriptive analysis with sampling weights was applied on data including basic demographics, self-reported health status, and health care utilization.  RESULTS:  While 42.8% of the survey participants reported to have HTN (accounted for 907,062 Taiwanese elderly), 89% of them were prescribed with antihypertensive agents, 85% took medications regularly, 21% perceived poor control of HTN. Up to 25% of them had other co-morbidities (e.g., DM), 24% had fall events, up to 14% had somewhat difficulties on general activities of daily living, and up to 48% had difficulties on the instrumental activities. For the past one year, up to 23% of them had visited the inpatient and emergency departments, and less than 5% had utilized long term care services. While 2 to 19% of them had always perceived to have bad mood, 4 to 25% reported to take sedatives, hypnotics, painkillers, and dietary supplements, and 31% did not receive any free elderly health check in Taiwan. CONCLUSIONS: With approximately 40% of the elderly population perceived to have hypertension, substantial portion of them were warranted for their elderly care regarding health and functional statuses, and medication use for HTN and for central nerves systems. Further exploration of the associations between HTN control and health statuses for the elderly is needed.