People behind unhealthy obsession to healthy food: the personality profile of tendency to orthorexia nervosa

Abstract

Purpose: Our aim was to measure the personality profile of people with high orthorexic tendency using an assessment method which is acknowledged in the research of the classical eating disorders (anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Methods: In our research, 739 participants completed a self-administered, online questionnaire consisting of two measures: Temperament and Character Inventory-56 (TCI-56) and Ortho-11-Hu. Results: The orthorexia nervosa (ON) grouping variable has a significant effect on three factors of TCI: MANOVA revealed higher harm avoidance (F (2, 736) = 19.01, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.05), lower self-directedness (F (2, 736) = 22.55, p < 0.001, η 2 = 0.06), and higher transcendence (F (2, 736) = 3.05, p = 0.048, η 2 = 0.01) in the higher ON group, compared to the lower ON group, regardless of the effect of the risk groups. Conclusions: According to earlier studies, high harm avoidance and low self-directedness are relevant factors of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and OCD, but now it also seems to be an important parameter of orthorexia. Nevertheless, higher transcendence may be a unique feature, which suggests that orthorexia seems to be an independent phenomenon. Level of evidence: V, descriptive cross-sectional study.