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Relationship between orthorexia nervosa and self-esteem in Tunisian medical students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

M. Abdelkefi ,
R. Masmoudi ,
R. Jbir ,
F. Cherif ,
I. Feki ,
R. Sellami  and
J. Masmoudi
M. Abdelkefi*
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
R. Masmoudi
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
R. Jbir
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
F. Cherif
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
I. Feki
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
R. Sellami
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
J. Masmoudi
Affiliation:
psychiatry A, Hedi Chaker university hospital, sfax, Tunisia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

The effect of self-esteem in eating disorders has been investigated in several studies, but it’s still not extensively investigated in orthorexia nervosa.

Objectives

To study the prevalence and factors associated with orthorexic eating behaviors in medical students and it’s relation with self-esteem.

Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted through an online survey among medical students of the faculty of medicine of Sfax (Tunisia). Participants completed an anonymous self-administered questionnaire. We collected their sociodemographic and clinical data. Orthorexia nervosa (ON) was assessed using the self-reported scale, ORTO-15. We used the Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale to assess self-esteem.

Results

Ninety five medical students completed the survey. The mean age was 25.8±3.4 years and the sex ratio (F/M) was 3.75. The average body mass index was 23.64±3.53 kg /m2.

Fifty-eight percent of the students (58%) reported that they were dissatisfied with their eating habits, and 27.4% tried to control their weight. Several methods of weight control were used, the most frequent (65.4%) were diet and physical exercise, none resorted to laxatives and 8.4% consulted a nutritionist.

Self-esteem was very low in 27.1% and low in 34.7% of the students.

Overall, the prevalence of orthorexia among our participants was 52.6%. The mean score of the ORTO-15 was 39.19±4.48.

Orthorexia was significantly correlated with the use of weight control measures (p=0.035) and physical activity (p=0.042).

Students with low self-esteem had higher tendency for orthorexia but with no significant correlation.

Conclusions

Our study supports a non-negligible frequency of orthorexic behaviors in medical students but future studies are needed to assess the direct effect of self-esteem on orthorexia.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 66 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 31st European Congress of Psychiatry , March 2023 , pp. S851 - S852
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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