Publication:

Impact of gender, body mass index and educational background on orthorexic tendency in undergraduate students of North India

Background Orthorexia nervosa (ON) is a recently identified eating behaviour disorder characterized by “obsession for healthy eating”. Such behaviour may negatively impact one’s physical and psychosocial health. The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of gender, body mass index (BMI) and educational background on orthorexic tendency of undergraduate students in North India.

Methods This analytical, cross-sectional study was carried out at Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College (KCGMC), Karnal, Haryana, India on young, healthy students enrolled in different undergraduate courses (medicine, science and arts) at colleges in Karnal district. Risk of orthorexia was assessed using ORTO-15 questionnaire. Subjects who scored below 40 were classified as having ON. Logistic regression analysis was done to examine the relationship between ON and socio-demographic variables.

Results Study sample comprising of 448 students, of which 273 (61%) were females and 175 (39%) males, had an average age of 19.25 years. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that BMI had a significant impact on orthorexic tendency (p=0.024). Students within the normal BMI range were twice (OR=2.0; 95% CI: 1.24-3.24) more likely to have ON than their underweight counterparts. However, no significant relationship was found between gender and ON. With respect to educational background, medical students differed significantly (p=0.001) in their ORTO-15 scores to science students. Arts and science students scores were comparable.

Conclusions This study suggests that socio-demographic variables might influence orthorexic tendency in student populations. Rising prevalence of this eating disorder necessitates more research to gain a better understanding of its magnitude and etiology.