Prevalence of orthorexia nervosa among nutrition students and nutritionists: Pilot study

Abstract

Background/aims: Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) is defined as an excessive concern in choosing and preparing of meals according to strict rules. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of ON among nutrition students and nutritionists and to identify the related variables affected by the ON tendency.

Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried out in July and August of 2019 among 421 nutrition students from six universities, in addition to nutritionists in Jordan. Participants completed questionnaire related to individual characteristics and the ORTO-15 scale. Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) tendency was measured using ORTO-15 questionnaire, referring to different diagnostic thresholds (40/35). p < 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant.

Results: Orthorexia had 72.0% prevalence in our sample using the 40-point threshold; the figure was reasonably lower with the 35-point threshold (31.8%). Also, ON tendency was significantly affected by BMI categories (p = 0.007) and gender (p = 0.043) at 35-point threshold. Males have more tendency (39.4%) than females (28.6%) (p = 0.029).

Conclusion: The results of this study highlight the magnitude of ON in Jordan. Using cut-off at 35 is preferable than cut-off at 40 to identify factors influencing ON. Moreover, ON tendency is affected by gender and BMI and not affected by educational level.

Keywords: Nutritionists; Orthorexia nervosa; Students.