Prevalence of orthorexia nervosa among medical students

Autor: A. Mellouli, S. Ellouze, M. Barkallah, M. Turki, B. Ben Jmeâa, N. Halouani, J. Aloulou
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2024
Předmět:
Zdroj: European Psychiatry, Vol 67, Pp S192-S193 (2024)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 0924-9338
1778-3585
DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2024.417
Popis: Introduction Orthorexia nervosa is defined as an unhealthy obsession with eating healthy food. Recent studies currently demonstrated that students in health-oriented academic programs, highly focused on nutrition and physical exercise, are more prone to develop orthorexia nervosa than students in other educational areas. Objectives Determine the prevalence of orthorexia nervosa in medical students and identify associated factors. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional, descriptive, and analytical study in the faculty of medicine of Sfax in Tunisia, between February and April 2023. We used ORTO-15 for the assessment of orthorexia. Results The research has enrolled 220 students. Their mean age was 21.40±1.68 years, with female predominance (70%). The mean Body mass index (BMI) was 22.46±4.15 kg/m2. The prevalence of overweight (BMI≥25 kg/m2) and obesity (BMI≥30 kg/m2) were respectively 19.5% and 3.6%. Over a third of students (34.1%) were using means of weight control, of which the diet represented 62.66% of cases. The participants had consulted a nutritionist in 11.4% of cases. The ORTO-15 mean total score was 36.88±6.76, with a mean score of 12.95±2.69 for cognitive dimension, 13.31±2.70 for clinical dimension, and 10.61±2.52 for emotional dimension. A total of 60% of participants had a score under the threshold. Orthorexia was significantly associated with female gender (p
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