The effect on nutrition status of acceptance of illness, emotional distress and quality of life in individulas with type 2 diabetes

The aim of this study is evaluate the effect of acceptance of the illness, emotional distress and quality of life on nutritional status of individuals with type 2 diabetes. 145 (73 male, 72 female) volunteers with type 2 diabetes, aged 20-65, living in Ankara participated in the study. The data of the participants were collected using a questionnaire prepared by the researcher and applied face to face. General information, anthropometric measurements, health information, nutritional habits, physical activity, nutrition (food consumption record and Healthy Eating Index-2010 (HEI-2010)), acceptance of the illness (Acceptance of Illness Scale (AIS)), emotional distress (Problem Areas in Diabetes (PAID) Scale), depression (Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)) and quality of life (Short Form-36 (SF-36)) of the individuals were evaluated. 50.3% of the individuals are men and 49.7% are women, most of them (93.8%) are between the ages of 46-65. 48.3% of them are overweight and 47.6% are obese and they got an average score of 30.2±5.62 from the AIS. It was found that 35.9% of the participants experienced emotional distress and 37.2% of them showed mild, 12.5% moderate and 2% severe depression symptoms. The quality of life of women is lower than that of men (p<0.05). 37.9% of the individuals have a bad diet, 58.6% need improvement and 3.5% have a good diet. This has shown that the diet quality of individuals is low. There was no significant correlation between HEI-2010 and AIS, PAID, BDI and SF-36, but relationships were found between these scales. For this reason, individuals with type 2 diabetes should be given nutritional education to improve their nutrition and realize the importance of nutrition, and it should be evaluated whether the individual considers nutrition as a part of the treatment during the education. Factors affecting the nutritions of people with type 2 diabetes, if any, should be determined and it will be beneficial to create an individual nutrition treatment by a dietician.