Abstract: With the deepening of population aging and the extension of life expectancy of the elderly, the improvement of the quality of the elderlies' life and well-being can not be separated from active social participation. Leisure activities, as an important part of social participation, play an important role in improving the quality of life and well-being of the elderly. Based on the survey data of Chinese elderly health and longevity and the regression model, the paper analyzes the impacts of the participation in leisure activities and self-reported health on the subjective well-being of the elderly in different age groups, and tests the mediating effect on self-reported health.The results show that participation in leisure activities and self-reported health have significant effects on the subjective well-being of the elderly, and positively correlated with the positive emotion of the elderly, negatively correlated with negative emotion; The positive effect of leisure activities on the positive emotions is greater than that on the negative emotions; There is a difference in the role of leisure activities among the elderly in different age groups; The self-reported health of the elderly plays a role of mediating effect between the participation of leisure activities and subjective well-being.