Evaluation of food disgust tendency, healthy nutrition obsession and nutritional status in adult individuals

This study was planned and conducted in order to investigate the effects of disgust tendencies of adult individuals on obsession with healthy nutrition and to evaluate their nutritional status. A total of 852 adult volunteers, 328 males and 524 females, aged between 19-55, living in Ankara, participated in the study. The data in the study were collected with a questionnaire prepared by the researcher. Individuals answered general information, health information, anthropometric measurements, and nutritional habits, and the Disgust Scale Revision Form (DS-R), Disgust Tendency and Sensitivity Scale Revise (DPSS-R), Food Disgust Scale (FDS) and ORTO-15 tests. 61.5% of the participants are women, 38.5% are men and their average age is 28.3 ± 8.65 years. More than half of the individuals have normal body mass index (BMI) (57.0% in men; 63.2% in women). Mean scores of DS-R (M: 13.9 ± 4.43, F: 16.6 ± 4.04), DPSS-R (M: 45.0 ± 12.98, F: 49.9 ± 13.24) and FDS (M: 110.8 ± 29.94, F: 118.0 ± 27.94) scale scores in women was higher. ORTO-15 scores are higher in males (p <0.05). There was no significant difference between the DPSS-R and ORTO-15 scores in terms of educational status (p> 0.05). ORTO-15 score distribution does not show a significant difference in terms of body mass index (BMI) classification of the participants (p> 0.05). It was found that as BMI increased, the scores of the DPSS-R and FDS scale decreased (p <0.05). It was found that as the time of consumption of meals in the morning, lunch and evening meals increased, the scores of the DS-R and FDS increased, and the ORTO-15 score decreased (p <0.05). A positive correlation was found between the DS-R and the DPSS-R and FDS scales, and a negative correlation with the ORTO-15 scale (p <0.05). The results show that the higher the disgust tendency of the individuals, the more orthoreectic tendency they have. Therefore, when evaluating the obsession with healthy nutrition, age, gender, education and nutritional status, as well as tendency to disgust and sensitivity to disgust, etc. it is beneficial to evaluate other factors together.Key Words: Nutritional status, orthorexia nervosa, obsession with healthy eating disgust, disgust tendency