Introduction: Type II diabetes is a serious disease and a major health concern. This type of diabetes and its complications pose a considerable burden not only on patients and their families, but also on health care systems. Type II diabetes is the leading cause of premature death. If improperly managed, it can lead to a number of health problems, including cardiovascular diseases, cerebrovascular accident, renal disease, blindness, nerve damage, leg or foot amputation, and death. Behavioral change and adoption of a healthy lifestyle can help prevent or hinder the complications of type II diabetes. Since the knowledge and practice of healthy lifestyle are inadequate in most diabetic patients, we sought to design a study to determine the lifestyle status of type II diabetic patients in Zabol, Iran.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted among 320 type 2 diabetic patients who were selected using the simple random sampling method. The required information was gathered by using a questionnaire consisting of two parts. To analyze the data, independent t-test, One-way ANOVA, and Tukey’s post hoc were run in SPSS.

Results: Of the 320 participants, 28.1% were males and 71.9% were females. The mean age and body mass index (BMI) of the subjects were respectively 53.87±10.19 years and 26.61±4.49 kg/m2. The associations of gender and disease history with life style were not significant (P>0.05). However, the relationships of age group, occupation, BMI, educational level, and income status with lifestyle were significant (P<0.05). Classification of the participants based on their lifestyle was as follow: poor (29.4%), moderate (68.1%), and good (2.5%).

Conclusion: Lifestyle intervention is a simple and cost-effective approach for the prevention of type 2 diabetes and hindering its progression in pre-diabetes patients. Thus, physical activity and exercise, along with change in dietary habits should be integrated into diabetes treatment and prevention plans.