Evaluation of healthy eating attitudes and quality of life in patients with type 2 diabetes

Aim: This study was conducted to examine the attitudes towards healthy eating and the quality of life of individuals diagnosed with T2DM. Material and Method: This cross-sectional, descriptive study included 233 individuals aged 18 and older who presented to the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic of Erzincan Binali Yıldırım University Mengücek Gazi Training and Research Hospital and had been diagnosed with T2DM by a physician. Data were collected between February and April 2026. A General Information Form, the HEAS, and the DQOL were used as data collection tools, and analyses were performed using IBM SPSS 26 software. Results: It was determined that the participants’ mean total score on the Healthy Eating Attitude Scale (HEAS) was 3.62±0.48, indicating a moderate-high level, while their mean total score on the Diabetes Quality of Life Scale (DQOL) was 3.28±0.52, indicating a moderate level. It was found that female participants had significantly higher total HEAS scores than male participants, while male participants had significantly higher total DQOL scores than female participants (p<0.01). Furthermore, a positive, weak, and statistically significant correlation was found between healthy eating attitudes and quality of life (r=0.286, p<0.01). Conclusion: Research findings indicate that attitudes toward healthy eating are positively correlated with quality of life in individuals with T2DM. Therefore, it is considered important to plan and implement holistic approaches that take individual characteristics into account, aimed at developing healthy eating attitudes and supporting quality of life in the management of T2DM.