Personality profiles in young adults with orthorexic eating behaviors

Abstract

Purpose: Orthorexia nervosa (ON), defined as an excessive preoccupation with healthy eating, has gained more interest in the literature over these past few years. However, little is known about its risk and protective factors, in particular with regards to personality.

Methods: A total of 3235 college students (10.32% men, 89.67% women) with a mean age of 21.13 (SD = 2.23) answered self-administered questionnaires assessing ON, psychopathological symptoms, and personality disorders including schizotypal, borderline, paranoid, obsessive-compulsive, and narcissistic personality. A subsample of 106 participants (91.51% women, mean age = 20.91, SD = 2.31) was selected based on the DOS cutoff score, and was then considered as the "orthorexic subsample".

Results: Hierarchical cluster analysis was performed in the orthorexic subsample and led to the identification of four groups: 1-a cluster with a low level of traits (L); 2-a cluster with moderate traits and low narcissistic traits (MD); 3-a cluster with a low level of traits and moderate narcissistic traits (MN); 4-a cluster with high paranoid and narcissistic traits (PN) and a moderate level of schizotypal and borderline traits. Levels of anxiety, obsessional-compulsive, and depressive symptoms were higher in the PN and MD clusters than in the L and MN clusters. Social phobia was higher and self-esteem lower in the MD cluster and hypochondriasis was higher in the PN and MN clusters.

Conclusions: This study suggests that ON can be associated with different personality profiles, some of them displaying significant psychopathological levels. It also emphasizes the importance of taking into account personality disorder traits of young adults with orthorexic eating behaviors.

Level of evidence: Descriptive (cross-sectional) study, Level V.

Keywords: Cluster classification; Healthy eating; Orthorexia nervosa; Personality disorder traits; Young adults.