Osteoarthritis causes physical and psychological stress due to joint pain and disability of activities of daily living. Such stress is becoming a serious problem for the elderly with chronic diseases. This study was performed to investigate the factors influencing the stress of elderly with or without arthritis and to practice of program of reduction of stress. This study was performed on 417 elderly respondents and 913 elderly respondents who answered 'yes' or ‘no’ to the physician' s diagnosis of osteoarthritis in the third year of the 6th National Health and Nutrition Survey. The factors significantly influencing the stress of elderly with osteoarthritis were number of household members, depression, subjective health and the factors influencing the stress of the elderly without arthritic were gender, AUDIT score, physical activity, depression, subjective body type, and subjective health. Their explanatory power were 29.5% (F = 6.38, p < .001) and 19.1% (F = 5.31, p < .001). The results of this study showed that the factors influencing stress were different according to osteoarthritis. Therefore, it would be a more effective intervention to reflect the characteristics of the elderly in stress reduction treatment.