Physical activity enjoyment and attitudes toward healthy nutrition in women: associations and demographic differences

Women's physical activity and nutrition behaviours are key public health priorities, yet the affective and cognitive factors underlying these behaviours remain incompletely understood. This study examined the association between women's physical activity enjoyment and attitudes toward healthy nutrition and explored whether these constructs differed according to key sociodemographic and activity-related characteristics.

A cross-sectional correlational study was conducted among 397 adult women (18-60 years; M = 31.43, SD = 10.97) living in Türkiye. Participants completed the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) and the Attitude Scale for Healthy Nutrition (ASHN) via an online questionnaire. Independent-samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, Pearson correlation analyses, and simple linear regression were performed.

Physical activity enjoyment was positively associated with overall healthy nutrition attitudes (r = .28, p < .001). ASHN total scores significantly predicted PACES scores (β = .28), explaining 8.3% of the variance (R² = .083, p < .001). Married women reported significantly higher ASHN total scores than single women (d = .42, p < .001). Higher educational attainment and greater physical activity frequency were associated with more favourable healthy nutrition attitudes, while women engaging in physical activity ≥5 days/week reported the highest PACES scores. Athletic license status was associated only with the ASHN Emotion for Nutrition subscale (p = .04).

Physical activity enjoyment and healthy nutrition attitudes are modestly but consistently associated in adult women. These findings support integrated, subgroup-sensitive health promotion strategies that simultaneously target enjoyment of physical activity and positive nutrition attitudes to encourage healthier lifestyles.