Department of Nutrition, Public Health School, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Eat Weight Disord. 2012 Mar;17(1):e29-35. doi: 10.1007/BF03325325.
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is described as an obsessive pathological behavior characterized by a strong preoccupation with healthy eating and the avoidance of foods or ingredients considered unhealthy by the subject. Although it is still not officially recognized as an eating disorder, previous studies have discussed its frequency in some groups and a fifteen-question test (ORTO-15) was developed elsewhere to assess ON behavior.
The present study aimed to evaluate ON behavior in a sample of Brazilian dietitians after testing the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of ORTO-15.
A total of 392 dietitians answered an online version of the test. The answers were analyzed regarding ON tendency, according with the scoring grid proposed by its authors. Exploratory factor analysis was performed and internal consistency was assessed.
It was found that three questions of the test presented loadings lower than 0.5. The 12 remaining question formed 3 factors with internal consistency of -0.51, 0.63 and 0.47. The answers of the participants to these questions revealed a tendency to orthorexic behavior, mainly regarding aspects such as: making food choices conditioned by worry about health status, evaluating food rather from nutritional quality than from its taste, believing that consuming healthy food may improve appearance, discrediting the influence of mood on eating behavior and banning food choices considered by them as eating transgressions.
There is no evidence of the validity and reliability of the ORTO-15 with the initial psychometric evaluation performed. Further analyses are needed. Nevertheless, it was possible to observe a high frequency of orthorexic behavior among the studied Brazilian dietitians. However, additional studies are needed to completely understand dietitians behavior toward ON.
饮食强迫症（ON）被描述为一种强迫性的病理行为，其特征是强烈关注健康饮食，避免食用被主体认为不健康的食物或成分。尽管它尚未被正式确认为一种饮食障碍，但之前的研究已经讨论了它在某些群体中的频率，并且 elsewhere 开发了一个十五题测试（ORTO-15）来评估 ON 行为。
本研究旨在评估巴西营养师样本中的 ON 行为，方法是测试 ORTO-15 葡萄牙语版本的心理测量特性。
共有 392 名营养师在线回答了测试。根据作者提出的评分标准，对 ON 倾向的答案进行了分析。进行了探索性因素分析和内部一致性评估。
发现测试中的三个问题的负荷值低于 0.5。其余 12 个问题形成了 3 个因素，内部一致性分别为 -0.51、0.63 和 0.47。参与者对这些问题的回答显示出了对饮食强迫症行为的倾向，主要涉及以下方面：因担心健康状况而做出食物选择、根据营养价值而不是口味来评价食物、相信食用健康食品可以改善外观、怀疑情绪对饮食行为的影响以及禁止他们认为是饮食违规的食物选择。
在初始心理测量评估中，没有证据表明 ORTO-15 具有有效性和可靠性。需要进一步分析。然而，我们可以观察到研究中的巴西营养师中存在高度的饮食强迫症行为。然而，需要进一步的研究来全面了解营养师对 ON 的行为。
