OBJECTIVES: To study the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of 300 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus at a clinical setting of a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: The socio-demographic and clinical parameters of this group of patients were collected and their HRQOL was assessed using a generic questionnaire, the WHOQOL-BREF. RESULTS: The results revealed that in our study the patients were predominantly male (58%). The mean age of the study participants was found to be 56.97±11.57 years with 67.6% of the patients above the age of 50 years. Seventy-six percent of patients reported suffering from at least one other chronic non-diabetic medical condition like hypertension (63.33%) and/or hyperlipidemia (40.63 %). Diabetic complications were also prevalent (62.4%). The highest mean domain score in our study population was in the social relationship domain (13.10±2.33), and the lowest was in the environment domain. The respondents with a lower family income, less education, increased age, female gender, single marital status and a rural background reported significantly lower HRQOL scores. CONCLUSIONS: Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease of life long duration affecting about 9% of India’s population. The number of people with diabetes is steadily increasing in India due to population growth, aging, urbanization and the increasing prevalence of obesity as well as physical inactivity. By identifying specific subsets of patients most likely to benefit from specialized care from health care providers, this study contributes by providing important data that may have direct implications for health care providers in their practice.