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Assessment of orthorexia nervosa via ORTO-R scores of Turkish recreational and competitive athletes and sedentary individuals: a cross-sectional questionnaire study

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to evaluate and compare the scores of a self-reported measurement of orthorexia nervosa among Turkish people who engage in different levels of physical activity (sedentary individuals, recreational athletes and competitive athletes).

Methods

Data for this study were collected through a self-administered online questionnaire between March and April 2020 in Turkey. The questionnaire consisted of two parts: personal information (sociodemographic and anthropometric information, training and dieting regime) and the ORTO-11 Scale. Only the items in the revised scale (ORTO-R) were used for analysis. Measurement invariance was tested and latent means were compared across different activity groups, sexes and levels of education.

Results

Analysis was done with a total of 877 participants (514 sedentary, 271 recreationally active, and 91 competitive athletes). Mean age of participants was 29.12 ± 11.15. Sedentary people were less likely to follow a particular diet. Configural, metric and partial scalar invariance were proven across three groups of physical activity and the difference between latent means was found nonsignificant (competitive vs sedentary: CR = − 0.53, p = 0.592; competitive vs recreational: CR = 0.25, p = 0.724; sedentary vs. recreational: CR = − 1.35, p = 0.183). Configural, metric and full scalar invariance were proven across sexes and different levels of education, and difference between latent means was found nonsignificant (CR = − 1,11, p = 0.272; CR = − 0.53, p = 0.587, respectively).

Conclusion

In conclusion, people who compete at sports events, exercise regularly at a recreational level, or lead a sedentary life have similar scores in ORTO-R. Also, females did not score higher than males.

Level of evidence

Level III, case-control analytic study.

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Availability of data and material

Dataset is available under https://doi.org/10.17632/4cdprfmv95.3.

Notes

  1. When model 1 was tested for measurement invariance across groups, configural invariance was rejected (χ2 = 91.85, df = 27, AIC = 12,622, BIC = 12,880, CFI = 0.893, RMSEA = 0.091). Later, measurement invariance of model 1 was tested across genders and configural invariance was rejected (χ2 = 105.15, df = 18, AIC = 12,608, BIC = 12,780, CFI = 0.862, RMSEA = 0.105). Finally, configural invariance of model 1 across different education levels was also rejected (χ2 = 84.168, df = 18, AIC = 11,348, BIC = 11,516, CFI = 0.880, RMSEA = 0.097). We finalized the analysis here. Therefore, metric and scalar invariances were not tested and comparing latent means  was not possible.

Abbreviations

AIC:

Akaike information criterion

BIC:

Bayesian information criterion

CFA:

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)

CFI:

Comparative fit index

CI:

Confidence interval

Df:

Degree of freedom

DSM:

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

ICD:

International Classification of Disease

IQR:

Interquartile range

ON:

Orthorexia nervosa

RMSEA:

Root mean square error of approximation

RNI:

Relative non-centrality index

SRMR:

Standardized root mean square residual

TLI:

Tucker–Lewis index

WRMR:

Weighted root mean square residual

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank M. Sinan İyisoy for his valuable contributions to the data analysis.

Funding

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology, Meram Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey

    Faik Özdengül, Melda Pelin Yargic, Rabia Solak & Oğuzhan Yaylali

  2. Department of Sports Medicine, Meram Faculty of Medicine, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey

    Melda Pelin Yargic & Galip Bilen Kurklu

Authors
  1. Faik Özdengül
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  2. Melda Pelin Yargic
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  3. Rabia Solak
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  4. Oğuzhan Yaylali
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  5. Galip Bilen Kurklu
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Contributions

FÖ conceptualization of the study, data collection, interpretation of the data, writing, supervising. MPY conceptualization of the study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of the data, writing. RS, OY, and GBK conceptualization of the study, data collection, interpretation of the data, and writing. All authors reviewed the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Melda Pelin Yargic.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethics approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Medical Ethics Committee of Necmettin Erbakan University. (2020/2374).

Informed consent

All participants were informed about the study and informed consent was obtained online prior to initiation of the questionnaire from all individual participants included in the study.

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The article is part of the Topical Collection on Orthorexia Nervosa.

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Özdengül, F., Yargic, M.P., Solak, R. et al. Assessment of orthorexia nervosa via ORTO-R scores of Turkish recreational and competitive athletes and sedentary individuals: a cross-sectional questionnaire study. Eat Weight Disord 26, 1111–1118 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-020-01006-2

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