Nutrition behavior of high school students, relationship between orthorexia nervosa and obsessive compulsive disorder

Objective: Many factors affect adolescent nutrition, adolescents are faced with obesity or eating disorders. The aim of this study was to have knowledge about nutritional behaviors of high school students, to determine the levels of orthorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and to assess the relationship between orthorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Method: Our sample was seven hundred and fifty-five high school students in Adana province. The study was performed between 1 October 2018 - 1 May 2019. Sociodemographic Information Form, ORTO-15 Scale and Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory were used. Results: Of students two hundred and eighty-five (37.7%) were male and 470 (62.3%) were female. It was found that 14.7% of the students participating in our study had orthorectic tendency and 44.5% were in high risk group for OCD. In our study, there was no significant relationship between age, gender, school grade, BMI, chronic disease, smoking behaviour and maternal education status and orthorectic tendency of the participants (p>0.05). It was found that there was a status significant relationship between the type of high school, area of living, socioeconomic level, knowledge of healthy nutrition, paternal educational status and the existence of diet and orthorectic tendencies of the people (p<0.05). In our study, a statistically significant difference was found in the correlation analysis performed to evaluate the presence of orthorectic symptoms and obsessive compulsive symptoms of the participants and the analysis showed a positive correlation (r= -.158 ve p<0.01). Conclusion: In our study, it was found that the relationship between orthorexia nervosa and obsessive-compulsive symptoms were found to be more frequent in high school students as the orthorexic symptoms increased. It is necessary to perceive the orthorexia nervosa as a public health problem and to carry out the preventive medicine practices in primary care and consider the necessary measures. Keywords: Nutritional behavior, High school student, Orthorexia nervosa, Obsessive compulsive disorder, Family medicine