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The effect of orthorexia nervosa on food label reading habits among university students

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Abstract

Purpose

This observational cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate university students’ food label reading habits with and without orthorexia nervosa (ON) tendency.

Methods

Data were collected online with a questionnaire. The questionnaire form included sociodemographic variables, the ORTO-11 scale, the reading frequency of some components on the food label, and the evaluation of some opinions about the food label. The obtained data were evaluated with SPSS 25.0 statistical package program and GraphPad Prism program.

Results

A total of 674 university students (mean age: 21.03 ± 2.43 years), 537 women (79.7%) and 137 men (20.3%) were included in the study. It was determined that individuals with ON tendency read some nutrients, content information, serving size, health information, instructions for use, additives and brand more frequently compared to individuals without ON tendency (p < 0.05). At the same time, it was determined that individuals with ON tendency were more likely to agree with the idea that reading food labels is important for a healthy diet, compared to individuals with normal eating behavior (p < 0.001).

Conclusion

The study findings show that individuals with ON tendency have a higher habits of reading food labels compared to individuals with normal eating behavior. To reach a decision on this issue and to determine the diagnostic criteria for ON, future studies should be conducted on different groups and samples with higher participation, as well as studies using different screening tools to determine the tendency for ON.

Level of evidence

V, Cross-sectional descriptive study.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutrition and Dietetic, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey

    Hülya Yardımcı

  2. Faculty of Health Sciences, Nutrition and Dietetic, Karabuk University, Karabuk, Turkey

    Büşra Demirer

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  1. Hülya Yardımcı
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  2. Büşra Demirer
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Correspondence to Büşra Demirer.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical approval

The research proposal was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Karabuk. All procedures performed 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.

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

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Yardımcı, H., Demirer, B. The effect of orthorexia nervosa on food label reading habits among university students. Eat Weight Disord 27, 2173–2180 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01366-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-022-01366-x

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