Consideration of Healthy Eating Obsession (Orthorexia Nervosa) for Students Educated in Nutrition and Dietetics Department

Objective: It was conducted to evaluate the susceptibility to ON (orthorexia nervosa) in the students of the nutrition and dietetics department according to the variables of gender, age and BMI (body mass ındex). Subjects and Methods: The research covers the students of Marmara University Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Nutrition and Dietetics in September-October 2017-2018 academic year. The data were collected by survey method. Socio-demographic characteristics and anthropometric measurements of the participants were questioned. EAT-40 (Eating Attitude Test), ORTO-15 test and MOCI (Maudsley Obsessive Compulsive Inventory) were used in the study. It was evaluated with SPSS (The Statistical Package for The Social Sciences) 21.0 program. Results: 205 people participated in the study. EAT-40 scores were found to be ≤ 20 in 94% of the women and 95.2% of the men in the study. The EAT-40 score is ≥ 21 in 6% of women and 4.8% of men in the study (p = 0.646 > 0.05). The ORTO-15 score of 72.3% of women and 71.4% of men is ≤ 40 (p = 0.934 > 0.05). EAT-40 average is 10.25 ± 1.10 in underweight. It was found to be 9.21 ± 0.42 in normals and 8.23 ± 0.76 in slightly obese subjects (p = 0.758 > 0.05). ORTO-15 average of those with BMI ≤ 18.49 kg/m2 is 39.59 ± 0.54; Those with 18.50-24.99 kg/m2 were found to be 38.30 ± 0.25 and those with 25.00-29.99 kg/m2 were found to be 39.54 ± 0.75 (p = 0.098 > 0.05). As the EAT-40 score increased, the ORTO-15 score decreased. It shows a negative, statistically significant difference between EAT-40 and ORTO-15 scores (p = 0.00 < 0.05). Conclusion: It was concluded that orthorexic tendency is common (72.2%) in nutrition dietetic students, and ON is associated with BMI and EAT-40 scores. In terms of ON, it would be beneficial to conduct comprehensive international studies and determine DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) diagnostic criteria.