The effect of orthorexia nervosa on food label reading habits among university students.

Abstract

This observational cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate university students' food label reading habits with and without orthorexia nervosa (ON) tendency. Data were collected online with a questionnaire. The questionnaire form included sociodemographic variables, the ORTO-11 scale, the reading frequency of some components on the food label, and the evaluation of some opinions about the food label. The obtained data were evaluated with SPSS 25.0 statistical package program and GraphPad Prism program. A total of 674 university students (mean age: 21.03 ± 2.43years), 537 women (79.7%) and 137 men (20.3%) were included in the study. It was determined that individuals with ON tendency read some nutrients, content information, serving size, health information, instructions for use, additives and brand more frequently compared to individuals without ON tendency (p < 0.05). At the same time, it was determined that individuals with ON tendency were more likely to agree with the idea that reading food labels is important for a healthy diet, compared to individuals with normal eating behavior (p < 0.001). The study findings show that individuals with ON tendency have a higher habits of reading food labels compared to individuals with normal eating behavior. To reach a decision on this issue and to determine the diagnostic criteria for ON, future studies should be conducted on different groups and samples with higher participation, as well as studies using different screening tools to determine the tendency for ON. V, Cross-sectional descriptive study.