Aim: To investigate the impact of nutritional status on self-reportedas well as performance-based indicators of physical functionin a rural elderly population in Bangladesh. Methods: A cross-sectionalstudy conducted in Matlab, Bangladesh, included 457 randomlyselected community-living elderly persons aged 60 years or more(60—92 years; 69 ± 7 years). Mobility, activitiesof daily living (ADL), performance tests, handgrip strength,the Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) and a structured questionnairewere used to assess physical function, nutritional status, socioeconomicstatus and health status, respectively. Descriptive and linearhierarchical regression analyses were applied. Results: Sevenper cent of the participants reported limitations in mobility,and 8% reported limitations in ADL. However, more than halfof the participants had difficulties in performing one or moreitems in the performance tests. According to the MNA, 26% ofthe participants were undernourished and 62% were at risk ofmalnutrition. More undernourished participants than well-nourishedparticipants reported limited mobility, impaired ADL and difficultiesin the performance tests. A corresponding reduction in gripstrength was observed in the undernourished group. Accordingly,higher MNA scores, indicating better nutritional status, weresignificantly associated with higher mobility index, higherADL index, higher performance tests index, and higher scoresin handgrip strength. These associations remained after adjustingfor demographic, socioeconomic and health status differences.Conclusions: Good nutritional status is important for the physicalfunction of elderly people, even after controlling for possibleconfounders. Performance tests indicated a higher degree offunctional impairment than that observed by self-reported estimation.