Abstract
The aim of this study was the validation and analysis of the psychometric properties of a Spanish translation of the ORTO-15 questionnaire; an instrument designed to assess orthorexia nervosa behavior. Four hundred and fifty-four Spanish university students (65% women) aged between 18 and 51 years (M = 21.48 ± 0.31) completed the Spanish version of ORTO-15 and the Eating Disorders Inventory-2 (EDI-2). The Principal Component Analysis suggested a three-factor structure for the abbreviated 11-item version of the instrument. The internal consistency of the measurement was adequate (Cronbach's alpha = 0.80). The proposed test demonstrated a good predictive capacity at a threshold value of <25 (efficiency 84%, sensitivity 75% and specificity 84%). Our results support the psychometric properties of the proposed Spanish shortened-version of the ORTO-15 as being a reliable tool for assessing orthorexia nervosa. Its use is expected to greatly contribute to a better understanding of the impact of this disorder in Spain.
Highlights
Orthorexia nervosa was first defined by Steven Bratman in 1997 [1]
When all the survey items are taken into account, the internal consistency of the questionnaire, measured by means of the standardized Cronbach’s alpha, is 0.751
Items 5, 8, 14 and 15 have the lowest item-total correlation values, showing that the correlation between each item and the remaining is weak. When these items are dropped from the original questionnaire, the standardized Cronbach’s alpha for the 11-item questionnaire improves to 0.8, which, according to available research, is an acceptable value [42]
Summary
Orthorexia nervosa was first defined by Steven Bratman in 1997 [1]. The term Orthorexia, derives from Greek, meaning ὀρθoB (right) and ὄρεξιB (appetite) to refer to a “correct or just appetite”[1]. In their book, “Health Food Junkies”, Bratman and Knight described the initial characteristics of people with orthorexia: an obsession for healthy food via adopting a restrictive diet and a focus on food preparation [2].When this obsession for a “pure” diet reaches an extent that could be considered pathological, this is presently referred to as orthorexia nervosa (ON) [3], [4], [5].
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