ORTHOREXIA NERVOSA IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AND ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH BODY IMAGE PERCEPTION

Year 2021, Issue: 87, 399 - 412, 21.09.2021

Merve İnce Palamutoğlu Meltem İnce Yenilmez

Abstract

The level of academic studies into orthorexic characters and actions has increased
within the past five years. However, the studies are still founded on descriptive
information, which produced various inconsistent results and prevalent data. The
connection between orthorexia and socio-cultural context has been investigated poorly
and is still yet to be understood fully. 554 tertiary-level students tested by using a protocol
that includes conscious participation and informed consent during the research. In
addition, the participants completed the ORTO-15 interpreted to our local language, the
Eating Attitude Test – YTT-40, which assesses eating attitude, the Maudsley Obsessive
Compulsive Questionnaire – MOCL, which assesses symptoms on obsessive-compulsive
disorders, and the form for personal information. The results showed that there were
no visible gender disparities in the ORTO-15. However, male participants recorded
lower scores, which is means greater severity, and are connected to lower pathological
patterns of eating as symptoms and behaviours, whereas, among the female students,
there were lower obsessive-compulsive signs and pathological body image discomfort.
Therefore, more studies that have to do with the connection between Orthorexia Nervosa
and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, will be useful to know the causality.

Keywords

Orthorexia Nervosa, Obsessive-compulsive symptoms, Disordered eating patterns, Body Image Perception, Eating Disorders

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