Prevalence of eating disorders tendencies, disordered eating, and orthorexia nervosa behaviors in dietetic-nutrition students compared to biology students

Abstract

Eating disorders (ED) are a problem on university campuses (Leiderman & Triskier, 2004), and may be more evident in dietetic-nutrition (DN) students (Poínhos et al., 2015). Furthermore, Orthorexia Nervoxa is an unhealthy obsession with healthy eating (Bratman, 1997). The purpose of this research was to determine the difference in ED tendencies and Orthorexic behaviors in DN students and biology students. Components of the EAT-26 to assess ED tendencies, the ORTO-15 to assess Orthorexic behaviors, and demographic questions, were administered via electronic survey to DN students and biology students in Wisconsin. Forty-five surveys were analyzed (35 DN students; 10 biology students) aged 22.0±4.3 years. The prevalence of ED tendencies was 22.2% overall, 22.9% in DN students, and 20.0% in biology students. The mean EAT-26 score for DN students was 14.31±14.16 and 12.50±12.64 for biology students (p=0.717). The prevalence of ON was 88.9% overall, 88.6% in DN students, and 90.0% in biology students. The mean ORTO-15 score for dietetic-nutrition students was 34.83 and 34.10 for biology students (p=0.633). There is no significant difference in ED tendencies or Orthorexic behaviors between DN students and biology students per the EAT-26 and ORTO-15. Future studies with larger samples sizes are needed to confirm these findings.