Abstract
BackgroundFor a better differential diagnosis of eating disorders, it is necessary to investigate their subtypes and develop specific assessment tools to measure their specific symptoms. Orthorexia nervosa is an alleged eating disorder in which the person is excessively preoccupied with healthy food. The ORTO-15, designed by Donini and colleagues, is the first and only at least partially validated instrument to measure this construct. The aims of the present study were to examine the psychometric properties of its Hungarian adaptation (ORTO-11-Hu), and to investigate its relationship to food consumption and lifestyle habits in order to contribute to a better description of the phenomenon.MethodsThe ORTO-11-Hu, a lifestyle habits questionnaire, a food choice list indicating foods the participants choose to consume, and ten additional orthorexia-related questions were administered to a group of 810 Hungarian participants (89.4% female) aged between 20 and 70 (M = 32.39 ± 10.37 years).ResultsConfirmatory factor analysis suggested a single factor structure for the 11-item shortened version of the instrument. Internal consistency of the measure was adequate (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.82). No significant differences were found between males and females on the ORTO-11-Hu. Age and body mass index were significantly associated with a tendency towards orthorexia nervosa. Additional orthorexia-related features were significantly correlated with ORTO-11-Hu scores: orthorexia nervosa tendency was associated not only with healthier food choices (eating more whole wheat cereals, less white wheat cereals, more fruit and vegetables) but with shopping in health food stores, as well as with some healthy lifestyle habits (more sports activity, specific dietary behaviors, and less alcohol intake). Individuals with higher orthorexia nervosa tendency also reported a greater tendency to advocate their healthy diet to their friends and family members.ConclusionsThese results provide evidence for the reliability of ORTO-11-Hu and some support for the construct validity of the instrument. The present study also contributes to the establishment of (diagnostic) criteria for this new subtype of eating disorders.
Highlights
For a better differential diagnosis of eating disorders, it is necessary to investigate their subtypes and develop specific assessment tools to measure their specific symptoms
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is an alleged eating disorder in which the person is excessively preoccupied with healthy food
We investigated the relationship between the ORTO-15 and ON features such as food choices and nutritional supplement use, alcohol, drug, and cigarette use, and some demographic variables, and added supplemental ON specific questions to examine external criteria for ON
Summary
For a better differential diagnosis of eating disorders, it is necessary to investigate their subtypes and develop specific assessment tools to measure their specific symptoms. To achieve a better differential diagnosis of eating disorders, investigating the various subtypes and developing specific assessment tools to measure specific symptoms is necessary. Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is an alleged eating disorder in which the person is excessively preoccupied with healthy food. The pathological obsession with biologically pure food and shops which sell it leads to a special lifestyle. Stringent dietary restrictions and eating plans, combined with a personality and attitude of superiority and obsessive-phobic behavioral characteristics define the core of ON. Transgressing the dietary rules leads to intense anxiety, feelings of guilt and shame and is followed by even more stringent dietary restrictions [1,2]
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