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Is the prevalence of orthorexia nervosa in an Australian university population 6.5%?

  • Rebecca ReynoldsEmail author
Original Article
First Online:
Part of the following topical collections:
  1. Orthorexia Nervosa

Abstract

Purpose

To survey Australian adults at a Sydney university about: their tendencies towards the proposed health food eating disorder, orthorexia nervosa (and to estimate the prevalence of this condition), their eating behaviours, and their body image.

Methods

A pilot, cross-sectional and descriptive online survey was conducted on staff and students at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. The primary outcome was the score on the most commonly used and validated measure of orthorexic behaviours, the ORTO-15. The point prevalence of orthorexia nervosa was estimated using the ORTO-15 cut-off score of < 35. Other outcomes were the Eating Attitudes Test-26 and the Body Shape Questionnaire-34.

Results

In the sample of 92 Australian adults recruited at a university, there was a point prevalence rate for orthorexia nervosa of 21% when using the ORTO-15 cut-off value of < 35. If criteria A and B of proposed diagnostic criteria for the condition were also taken into consideration (i.e. someone with orthorexia nervosa would display disordered healthy eating tendencies; as well as were: underweight, or had marked concern with their body shape, or had significant impairment of functioning in work life or social life), the true prevalence rate could be considered to be 6.5%.

Conclusions

Using the ORTO-15 tool alone may overestimate the true prevalence of orthorexia nervosa. Further research into the accurate diagnosis and treatment of orthorexia nervosa is needed.

Level of evidence

Level V, descriptive study.

Keywords

Feeding and eating disorders Orthorexia nervosa Healthy eating Feeding behavior Diet Reducing Body image 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Daniela Schäfera for contributing to data collection and Elena Syurina for helping with the study design.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The author has no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the UNSW Sydney Human Research Ethics Committee (Approval Number HC15086).

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.School of Public Health and Community MedicineUNSW SydneySydneyAustralia

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