Orthorexia nervosa in yoga practitioners: relationship with personality, attitudes about appearance, and yoga engagement

Abstract

Purpose Disordered eating symptoms and a high prevalence of orthorexia nervosa can be found in yoga practitioners. Given that yoga is increasingly used as a complementary treatment for eating disorders (ED), understanding the relationship between yoga practice and the development of disordered eating is crucial to guide treatment recommendations. The goal of this work is, therefore, to study the relationships between orthorexia nervosa (ON) and potential risk factors for ON, in an international sample of experienced yoga practitioners.Method An online questionnaire that included several psychometric instruments was responded by 469 yoga practitioners. Instruments used were the Teruel Orthorexia Scale, Yoga Immersion Scale, Passion Scale, Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, self-discipline scale of NEO-PI-R, Drive for Thinness scale of EDI, and Beliefs about Appearance Scale. Descriptive statistics, correlational analysis and multiple regression were used to evaluate relationships between ON and the other variables. ResultsThe main predictors of orthorexia nervosa were the drive for thinness and a healthy orthorexia, suggesting that, like in anorexia and bulimia, orthorexic individuals are also concerned with food quantity and physical appearance, rather than just food quality. ConclusionsThe potential effects of yoga on eating behaviours and attitudes of long-term practitioners, particularly the high prevalence of orthorexia nervosa and the concern for physical appearance, should be taken into consideration when using yoga as prevention or treatment for eating disorders.Level of evidence V, descriptive cross-sectional study.

Orthorexia nervosa vs. healthy orthorexia: relationships with disordered eating, eating behavior, and healthy lifestyle choices

“…Data came from Domingues and Carmo (2020), who included their original data as supplementary material [ 20 ]. Four-hundred sixty-nine yoga practitioners, 84% of whom were women, 57% of whom ranged from 35–55 years of age, and who were highly educated (85.7% with complete college or university education or more) completed the online questionnaire.…”

“…Scores by dimension were computed as the sum of the item responses. Although Dominguez and Carmo (2020) used an English translation of the TOS [ 20 ], a new and improved version was used here. Starting with that initial translation, both authors discussed and agreed with that final version.…”

“…The TOS is currently validated only in Spanish [18]. OrNe and HeOr are clearly distinct constructs: prior publications have reported moderate correlations of r = 0.35, 0.39, 0.46, and 0.51 [18][19][20][21], yet in regressions or partial correlation analyses controlling for the other subscale, OrNe and HeOr have different patterns of correlations with motivations for food choice, personality, disordered eating symptoms, body image concerns, and symptoms of other psychopathology [18,19]. In general, OrNe is positively associated with maladaptive traits, whereas HeOr has a null or negative relationship with the same traits.…”

“…The current study has two aims which address both identified gaps in the orthorexia literature. The first aim is to establish the factor structure and convergent validity of the English TOS in two samples, one including yoga practitioners [a population that has previously been found to be at higher risk for OrNe, (e.g., 20)] and the other an unselected sample from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk). We expect to replicate the published two-factor solution of the Spanish TOS.…”

A Portuguese Adaptation of the Teruel Orthorexia Scale and a Test of Its Utility with Brazilian Young Adults

“…Healthy orthorexia is the interest in adequate nutrition as part of a non-extreme practice to maintain the balance between health and well-being (Bratman, 2017). However, given the recent publication of the scale in the scientific literature, few studies have used the TOS, and as far as we know, only four studies (Domingues & Carmo, 2021;Strahler, 2020Strahler, , 2021Strahler et al, 2020) applied the instrument in non-Spanish samples.…”