ABSTRACT

In this study, it is aimed to bring up Orthorexia nervosa tendency among Trakya University Medical School students and determine the effect of smoking, alcohol use, drug use, chronic diseases, previous regimes, doing sports, possibility of individuals of cooking for themselves in their daily life and socio-demographic variables.

This is a cross-sectional survey study that was applied to the 1278 students who are enrolled in Trakya University Medical School in 2014-2015 academic year. A questionnaire is prepared by the researcher including questions to determine orthorexia nervosa tendency, socio-demographic factors and Orto-11 scale. 705 students filled the questionnaire and only 676 could be used in the study. The mean age of the students was 20.92 years (min. 17 years max. 40 years). 62.1 % was female (420) and 37.9% was male (256). Results have been evaluated by using SPSS programme. In this evaluation, Kruskal Wallis and chi-square test were used.

Among the factors which were searched, it is seen that smoking, alcohol use and drug use decreased Orthorexia nervosa tendency while it is increased with possibility of cooking, male sex and doing sports. No significant difference were observed between other factors and Orthorexia nervosa.

Even though there are not adequate studies in literature and it is not described in DSM-V, Orthorexia nervosa might affect individual’s quality of life later in their lifetime. It is important to carry on more comprehensive studies on this topic.

Keywords: Eating disorders, medical students, feeding behavior, food habits, diet therapy