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To further understand orthorexia nervosa: DOS validity for the Portuguese population and its relationship with psychological indicators, sex, BMI and dietary pattern

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Abstract

Purpose

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is considered a pathological fixation with healthy eating. Despite recent research focus, there is still a lot of inconsistent information concerning ON, including its definition and validity of its measuring tools. This study aimed to extend the current knowledge on ON, by developing and validating the Portuguese adaptation of the Dusseldorf Orthorexie Scale (DOS) and studying its prevalence and relationship with different psychological indicators, sex, BMI and dietary pattern.

Methods

Data were collected online, through self-report questionnaires, and two different samples were collected, with 513 (Sample 1) and 541 participants (Sample 2) from the general population.

Results

DOS’ one-dimensional factorial structure and reliability was confirmed. ON’s prevalence was 10.52%. Results revealed that women present higher scores on DOS than men, but no differences were found regarding the BMI groups. DOS was positively related to all psychological indicators, with moderate and strong relationships with disordered eating and inflexible eating. Sample 2 was used to explore ON’s differences between dietary patterns, with results demonstrating that omnivores present significantly lower levels of orthorexic tendencies, when compared with the vegetarian, vegan, and paleo groups.

Conclusions

The present study is the first to successfully validate a measure that assesses ON for the Portuguese population and adds to the existing literature in several other important ON aspects.

Level of evidence

Level V—validation study.

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Data availability

The Portuguese version of DOS (P-DOS) is available upon request from the authors.

Code availability

Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank PhD student Sara Oliveira for support in data analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CINEICC - Center for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Behavioral Intervention, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Cláudia Ferreira & Maria Coimbra

  2. Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal

    Maria Coimbra

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  1. Cláudia Ferreira
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  2. Maria Coimbra
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Correspondence to Maria Coimbra.

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Ferreira, C., Coimbra, M. To further understand orthorexia nervosa: DOS validity for the Portuguese population and its relationship with psychological indicators, sex, BMI and dietary pattern. Eat Weight Disord 26, 2127–2134 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01058-4

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