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Is orthorexic behavior common in the general public? A large representative study in Germany

Eating and Weight Disorders - Studies on Anorexia, Bulimia and Obesity volume 24, pages 267–273 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Purpose

Orthorexia is described as a strict, health-oriented eating pattern with clinically significant impairment in everyday life. Its prevalence varied widely in previous studies due to heterogenous assessment procedures. Determinants for the eating pattern and its prevalence have not been investigated in larger representative studies.

Methods

A population-based telephone survey in Germany was conducted in n = 1007 participants. The Dusseldorf Orthorexia Scale with a cut-off of 30 was used to assess orthorexic behavior. Determinants of orthorexia, including personal BMI, depressive symptoms Patient Health Questionnaire and socio-demographic variables were analyzed in multivariate regression.

Results

The prevalence of orthorexic behavior was 6.9%. A higher rate of orthorexic behavior was observed in heavier, less educated, vegetarian and more depressed participants; in multivariate analysis only associations to lower educational attainment, a vegetarian diet and depressive symptoms remained. No gender or age differences were observed.

Conclusions

The study results show that orthorexic behavior may indeed by associated with significant strain and psychological distress. Current debates on the criteria of clinical significance of orthorexic behavior call for new instruments and further investigations, to elicit the prevalence of people with orthorexic behavior that classifies as a pathological eating disorder.

Level of evidence

Level V: descriptive study.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Germany, FKZ: 01EO1501 and the nutriCARD competence cluster (Grant number: 01EA1411B). The funding bodies had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Integrated Research and Treatment Center (IFB) Adiposity Diseases, University Hospital Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Str. 27, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Claudia Luck-Sikorski, Franziska Jung & Katharina Schlosser

  2. SRH University of Applied Health Sciences, Neue Straße 28-30, 07548, Gera, Germany

    Claudia Luck-Sikorski

  3. Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health (ISAP), Medical Faculty, University of Leipzig, Philipp-Rosenthal-Str. 55, 04103, Leipzig, Germany

    Steffi G. Riedel-Heller

Authors
  1. Claudia Luck-Sikorski
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  2. Franziska Jung
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  3. Katharina Schlosser
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  4. Steffi G. Riedel-Heller
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudia Luck-Sikorski.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. The board of Ethics at the Medical faculty (University of Leipzig, IORG0001320 and IRB00001750) approved the study protocol.

Informed consent

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

Additional information

This article is part of topical collection on Orthorexia Nervosa.

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Luck-Sikorski, C., Jung, F., Schlosser, K. et al. Is orthorexic behavior common in the general public? A large representative study in Germany. Eat Weight Disord 24, 267–273 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0502-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-018-0502-5

Keywords

  • Orthorexia
  • Depression
  • Prevalence
  • Representative study
  • Obesity