AIM: To study the quality of life of adult patients with intermittent exotropia (IXT) in China and analyze the factors affecting the quality of life in IXT patients. METHODS: Totally 109 cases of normal eye (control group), 77 cases of IXT (IXT group) and 115 cases of strabismus control group (except IXT) were collected. The quality of life of the patients was assessed by Chinese version of adult strabismus patient's quality of life scale (CAS-20). The differences of general characteristics, visual function and quality of life were analyzed, and the effects of individual factors and visual function on quality of life of patients with IXT were analyzed. RESULTS: The IXT group had a high proportion of patients with family history, low proportion of patients with amblyopia compared with strabismus control group. The proportion with normal near and far stereopsis of IXT group were lower than that of normal control group. The best corrected visual acuity of IXT group was higher than that of strabismus control group, but lower than the control group. In addition, the median strabismus degree in IXT group was higher than that in other strabismus control group. The median psychosocial scores and median visual function scores of the IXT group was lower than that of the normal control group, but not different from strabismus control group. Occupation status, course of disease, far stereopsis and near stereopsis significantly affected the quality of life in IXT patients. CONCLUSION: Adult IXT patients in China have a certain proportion of family history and lower quality of life, The main factors affecting the quality of life of IXT patients is stereopsis, course of disease and occupation status.