Determination of orthorexia nervosa symptoms and eating attitudes in Inonu University Faculty of medicine students

Aim: The aim of this study is to examine orthorexia nervosa symptoms and eating attitudes of students in Inonu University Faculty of Medicine. Material and Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 298 students who educated Inonu University Faculty of Medicine in 2017. Data collection tools were General Information Form, ORTO-15, EAT-40. SPSS 22.0 and Pearson Exact, Fisher's, Yate's Contiunity Corrected Chi-Square tests were used for statistical analysis and significance value was accepted p <0.05. Results: %76.2 of students had orthorexia tendency, %11.1 of students had eating disorders. 24 aged students were found to less orthorexic than others and obese students tend to have less orthorexic than others (p<0.05). In third grade students had more orthorexic than fouth, fifth and sixth; fifth grade students had less orthorexic than first, second and third (p<0.05). It was found individuals who changed their eating behavior always had more orthorexic than changed eating behavior rarely and individuals who changed eating behavior always had more eating disorder rate than others (p<0.05). It was found individuals who received information from book-scientific publications had lower percentage of eating disorders than others and individuals who received information from dietitians had higher eating disorders rate than those who did not (p<0.05). Conclusion: According to our results, methods that are evaluated for orthorexia tendency are required to be updated and developed. It thought that medical school students will be able to reduce eating disorders and orthorexia nervosa through train awareness of orthorexia nervosa.