Determination of the orthorexia nervosa (ON) tendency among university students and effective factors on on tendency: A cross-sectional study

In the Post-modern world, people increased their awareness for healthy eating with the emergence of healthy eating concerns, various diseases and periodic eating trends, and the importance of appearance. It is suggested that this may also lead to an increase in the Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) tendency. Health professionals, dietitians, students who have health education, individuals who do sports, adolescents and performance artists are in the risk group for ON. In this study, we aimed to determine the effect of the factors claimed to be effective on ON tendency, reach more homogeneous gender distribution with a larger sample number and compare different risk groups. The prevalence of ON found as 23%, while being single, having ≥30 kg/m2 body mass index, being Nutrition and Dietetics student, having medical nutrition therapy, have been on a diet within the last 6 months, being physically active, buying foods with the influence of social media (SM) correlated with ON tendency (p<0.05). In addition, individuals who use Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok, people who follow at least one person to get nutritional information on SM had higher ON tendency (p<0.05). Moreover, ON tendency was higher in those who follow coaches/lifecoaches/athletes, dieticians, phenomena/artists, newspapers/magazines/news accounts and chefs to get nutritional information. Since the diagnostic criteria have not been definitively determined, the findings about the effective factors are contradictory, and the prevalence is increasing day by day, ON and it's consequences are important. In order to get clear results about the findings, it is suggested to compare the Orto-15 and Orto-11 scales and determine the cut-off score.