Determination of the orthorexia nervosa prevalence in university students (Sample of faculty of sports sciences)

Orthorexia Nervosa (ON), first described in 1997 and known as a healthy eating obsession, is associated with the desire for healthy eating rather than the amount of calories taken and thin appearance. People who play sports are at risk of ON. The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of ON among students receiving sports education and to examine the relationships between eating attitudes and demographic variables. The study was carried out with 368 students (132 girls, 236 boys) studying at the Faculty of Sports Sciences of Fırat University. A questionnaire form was used to determine the health status, educational information and socio-demographic characteristics of the students. The ORTO-15 scale was used to evaluate ON tendency and the Eating Attitude Test (YTT-40) was used to evaluate eating behaviors. The average age of the students participating in the study was 22.75±3.61 years. 6% of the students are married and 93.8% are single. 44% of the students took nutrition lessons. The mean body mass index (BMI) is 22.71±2.92 kg/m² and 5.7% are underweight, 76.1% are normal, 16% are overweight and 2.2% are obese. The frequency of students doing regular physical activity is 65.5%. The students' ORTHO-15 mean score was 36.57±4.5 and the EAT-40 mean score was 18.09±18.41. Orthorexic tendency of married students was found to be higher than other students (p<0.05). YTT-40 scores of female students were higher (p<0.05). No difference was found between the ORTO-15 and YTT-40 scores according to the students' nutritional status (p>0.05). The ON tendency of the students who do regular physical activity is significantly higher than the other students (p<0.05). A weak negative correlation was found between ORTHO-15 and EAT-40 scores (r=-0.366, p=0.000). Conducting comprehensive studies on ON, the prevalence of which is increasing, will contribute to the diagnosis and treatment stages.