When eating healthy is not healthy: orthorexia nervosa and its measurement with the ORTO-15 in Hungary

To achieve a better differential diagnosis of eating disorders, investigating the various subtypes and developing specific assessment tools to measure specific symptoms is necessary. Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is an alleged eating disorder in which the person is excessively preoccupied with healthy food. First described by Bratman in 1997, ON entails a fixation on healthy food or a health food dependence [1]. The term orthorexia nervosa arises from the words orthos (=accurate) and orexis (=hunger) meaning obsession with healthy food and proper nutrition. Fears and worries about health, eating, and the quality of food are significant.

In extreme cases, the obsessive and compulsive characteristics of ON become pathological and dominate a person’s life. The preoccupation with quality of food and eating healthy comprise the principal elements of this disorder. The pathological obsession with biologically pure food and shops which sell it leads to a special lifestyle. Stringent dietary restrictions and eating plans, combined with a personality and attitude of superiority and obsessive-phobic behavioral characteristics define the core of ON. Transgressing the dietary rules leads to intense anxiety, feelings of guilt and shame and is followed by even more stringent dietary restrictions [1, 2].

At present, ON is not a formal disorder, but more and more clinical reports related to it have appeared as it becomes more and more familiar to health care professionals [3]. There is no consensus on the categorization of ON among mental disorders or even if it is a mental disorder. ON was debated on whether or not it should have a place in the recently published DSM-5 [4]. In sum, ON is a new and controversial concept.

Two instruments have been developed to assess ON. The Bratman test is based mostly on clinical experience, and its validity has not been investigated by the author himself or by others. In 2005, Donini and colleagues developed the ORTO-15 based on Bratman’s test [5]. However, this instrument also includes items not specifically characteristic of ON making the face validity of the test doubtful. The ORTO-11 scale, the only foreign language (Turkish) adaptation of the ORTO-15 to date, was designed after omitting four non-ON-specific items based on statistical considerations [6]. In addition, the psychometric properties of the ORTO-15 have only been partially examined by the original test authors. Due to not having a well-defined group of individuals with ON for this purpose, Donini and colleagues proposed a cutoff point to distinguish between individuals with or without ON based on the interrelationship of ORTO-15 scores with obsessive-phobic personality traits as measured by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. A further limitation of the documentation is the inadequate description of the scoring method.

Some clinical studies have also been carried out to better understand the characteristics of ON [7, 8]. These suggest that the difference between an ON sufferer and a health-conscious person include the extreme preoccupation with and the judging attitude towards others who do not follow a healthy diet. These studies also provide recommendations for distinguishing ON from anorexia nervosa, psychosis, and poisoning fears.

The aim of the present study was to describe the adaptation process of the ORTO-15 into Hungarian and to investigate the psychometric properties of this version in a large Hungarian sample. We investigated the relationship between the ORTO-15 and ON features such as food choices and nutritional supplement use, alcohol, drug, and cigarette use, and some demographic variables, and added supplemental ON specific questions to examine external criteria for ON. We hypothesized that individuals who have a tendency for ON, in addition to making healthier food choices, refuse to use drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, and take more nutritional supplements, engage in more sports activity and have more dietary restrictions than those without a tendency for ON. Beyond the psychometric aspects, we also intended to improve the knowledge in the field concerning cultural differences, the investigating of which is largely missing from the literature on ON.

Orthorexia nervosa is a recently proposed eating disorder where the quality of food becomes an obsession. Until now, only some basic steps have been made to operationalize this construct: the psychometric status of the first and only measurement instrument (ORTO-15) for ON is still unclear. The aim of this study was to contribute to the scientific literature on the assessment of this possible new eating disorder and to describe its clinical features.

The confirmatory factor analytic findings of this study did not provide support for the three-factor structure recommended by the original test authors [5]. Our final analysis suggested a one-factor solution with 11 items (item numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 15) omitting item numbers 5, 6, 8, and 14 from the original ORTO-15 in this Hungarian sample (thus creating ORTO-11-Hu). Internal consistency of this shortened 11-item version proved to be adequate.

To provide our results with international context, it is worth mentioning that the Turkish adaptation of ORTO-15 also led to an 11 item-questionnaire with a one-factor solution. However, the item-composition of the Turkish version is somewhat different: it contains items 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 from ORTO-15. The internal consistency of the Turkish ORTO-11 (0.62) [6] was lower than that of the Hungarian version in the present sample. Concerning item composition, the items that were dropped from the Turkish and the Hungarian questionnaire are different. The four items excluded from the Hungarian one were related to quality preference (item 5) and the financial aspect of food choices (item 6), the transgression of dietary rules (item 8) and beliefs about unhealthy food at the market (item 14). The Turkish version omitted the following items: the calorie aspect of food (item 1), finding food shopping confusing (item 2), mood specificity (item 9), and a preference for eating alone (item 15).

Cultural differences may explain at least some of these differences, including the fact that Turkish society is characterized by collectivism, contrary to Hungary which has a strongly individualist culture. Hungarians tend to view themselves mainly as individuals emphasizing the needs of a single person. In Turkey, however, people tend to view themselves mainly as members of groups (families, work units, tribes, nations), and usually consider the needs of the group to be more important than the needs of individuals [11]. Another important difference may be related to the Muslim religion that has different values compared to Christianity (restrictions in the consumption of certain food types, the meaning of fasting, attitudes towards hedonism, habits of eating in the family, etc.). These differences might also be associated with general cross-cultural differences in the expression of eating disorders, and with the availability and quality of different foods. Symptoms of ON may thus vary across different countries and cultures, which underlines the importance of further cross-cultural research on this phenomenon.

Our final confirmatory factor analytic model contained three covariances between error terms suggested by modification indices from previous analyses. The necessity of the inclusion of these associations might be explained by the fact that item numbers 10, 11, and 12 contain more words than the other items in the Hungarian version of ORTO-15. These items are less understandable because of their multiple complex structures (a characteristic of the Hungarian language). The beginning of these three sentences is also the same, and the end of the sentences contains the main message of the item. Further, all three sentences contain the expression ‘eating healthy food’. A further relevant factor can be the difficulty of distinguishing between self-esteem, lifestyle, and appearance in the context of eating healthy food.

Concerning the cutoff score, highly unexpected results were found in the present sample. Setting the cutoff score at 40 for defining the occurrence of ON, as suggested by the original test authors [5], yielded a 74.2% point prevalence in our sample (lower scores refer to higher tendency for ON). This high prevalence rate is similar to the prevalence rates found in other studies employing the same cutoff point [12–15]. The reason for such a high percentage can be either that the cutoff point is not correct or the validity of the scale is poor. The finding that scores on the ORTO-11-Hu were significantly associated with ON-related behaviors in our sample supports the previous opinion of the inadequacy of the cutoff point in addition to the construct validity of the instrument. Further research should contribute to the establishment of a reliable cutoff point to distinguish between individuals with and without ON.

The present findings also showed that the association between ORTO-11-Hu scores, age, and body mass index was statistically significant but negligible. These results are in line with the diverse results of other studies which reported no differences in age [6] or body mass index [6, 13, 16, 17]. In other studies, lower age was found to be associated with higher scores on ORTO-15 [12, 14]. However, these studies were conducted among medical students, so the level of education may be a moderator in this relationship: several studies report that an earlier stage of university studies is associated with orthorectic features but this relationship weakens towards the end of studies [18]. Only the study of Donini and colleagues [5] reported data inconsistent with these results. Consistent with our present findings, most of the former studies also did not find a significant association between ON features and body mass index [6, 13, 16, 17]. As some authors suggest, body mass index can predict orthorectic behaviors in combination with other variables such as medical reasons, dieting, and healthy nutrition [6]. However, a study reported higher body mass index scores associated with lower ORTO-15 scores among medical students [14], meaning that higher body mass index is related to orthorectic behaviors in this special population.

In the present Hungarian sample, there were no significant differences between male and female individuals, in contrast to the other studies where females had a higher tendency for ON [5, 6, 14, 19]. Because males were underrepresented in our sample, these results provide less reliable data to assess gender-related differences. Further studies should clarify whether our results can be explained by the low rate of male respondents or they reflect some true cultural specialty.

In line with our expectations, individuals in our sample with stronger ON tendency reported eating more whole wheat cereals and less white wheat cereals and more frequent shopping in healthy food stores. The orthorectic features were also related to lifestyle habits such as regular sports activity, more dietary restrictions and less alcohol intake and an inclination to persuade others about the importance of a healthy diet. These results are similar to the descriptions of Bratman [1] regarding ON which includes not only eating habits but other associated lifestyle characteristics.

At present, no comprehensive and standardized criteria for ON exists. Our knowledge in this regard is limited to the description of Bratman, some clinical observations by others, and a few explorative studies conducted with convenience samples from a small number of countries (for a detailed review, see [20]). Since there are no specific external criteria or other validated assessment tools for ON, evaluating the validity of the present instrument is impossible in a strict sense. However, it seemed to be reasonable to use some supplemental questions based on the clinical literature to perform a preliminary validation of the investigated measurement instrument. In line with our expectations, these ON features were significantly associated with ORTO-11-Hu scores supporting some evidence for the validity of the scale. Individuals with higher frequency of eating health food, having a schedule for eating, eating food with a particular color, eating mostly the same type of food and spending lots of time preparing meals showed a stronger tendency for ON. Further, individuals who found sexuality not to be important, considered being overweight as a sign of weakness, and disapproved of people who could not overcome their desires also had a higher tendency for ON. This was also the case for those who believed that people should be blamed for their own diseases, and those who criticized people who did not follow the rules of a healthy lifestyle. These results provide some further support for the construct validity of the ORTO-11-Hu.

Our study has several strengths and limitations. Internet-based sampling may have inherent selection biases towards a younger and more educated sample. Further, the connotation of the name of the study ‘Nutrition and health’ may have attracted individuals for whom nutrition and healthy eating are more important in their everyday life than for individuals in the general population. In addition, all results were based on self-reports not enabling confirmation of the accuracy of responses, which could be especially distorted concerning health behaviors or food choices. However, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study in the literature investigating the factor structure of an ON scale using confirmatory factor analytic techniques. A further strength of the study is the relatively large sample consisting of individuals with diverse characteristics across occupation and age. In addition, this is the first study to investigate correlates of ON in a diverse and large sample from Eastern Europe.

We can conclude that the Hungarian version of the ORTO-15 questionnaire has adequate psychometric characteristics, thus providing preliminary support for the use of this instrument. Further research from other countries is needed to improve our knowledge on the psychometric characteristics of the instrument and to better understand the nature and correlates of ON. Future research in this area should identify the place for ON among mental disorders, presumably on the spectrum of eating and obsessive compulsive disorders.