Relationship between Psychosocial Impairment, Food Choice Motives, and Orthorexic Behaviors among Polish Adults

Abstract

Orthorexic behaviors correlate not only with health motives when choosing food but may also coexist with psychosocial impairment. The aim of this study was to assess the motives of food choice and psychosocial impairment among adults with orthorexic behaviors through the use of ORTO-15 and ORTO-7. The data for the study were collected from a sample of 1007 Polish adults through a cross-sectional quantitative survey conducted in 2019. The respondents were asked to complete the ORTO-15 questionnaire, the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ), and the Clinical Impairment Assessment (CIA). Orthorexic behaviors were measured using both the 15-item and the shorter 7-item version of the ORTO questionnaire. To determine the factors coexisting with the orthorexic behaviors, linear regression models were developed. The scores of both ORTO-15 and ORTO-7 correlated positively with the global CIA scores and the scores of personal, cognitive, and social impairments, but compared to the ORTO-7 scores, the ORTO-15 scores showed weaker correlations with the global CIA score and individual CIA scales. Orthorexic behaviors measured with ORTO-15 correlated positively with such food choice motives as health, natural content, and weight control; whereas orthorexic behaviors measured with ORTO-7 showed positive bivariate correlations only with two food choice motives: health and weight control. In regression models, sensory appeal, age, and education lower than secondary were associated inversely with orthorexic behaviors measured by both the ORTO-15 and the ORTO-7. In conclusion, the obtained results confirm that orthorexic behaviors are associated with a higher score regarding health motivation and cause an increase in psychosocial impairment. In addition, orthorexic behaviors are associated with greater importance of body weight control, which confirms the relationship between orthorexic behaviors and other eating disorders (ED), such as anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN). However, similar motives for food choice displayed by the groups with higher scores of the ORTO-15 and the ORTO-7 and strong correlation between results obtained from both tools confirmed the similarity between these two questionnaires, thus revealing the weak psychometric properties also of the shorter seven-item version of the ORTO. Future studies on food motives, psychosocial impairment, and orthorexic behaviors should consider using other tools for measuring orthorexic behaviors.

Law enforcement personnel are willing to change, but report influencing beliefs and barriers to optimised dietary intake

“…Correspondingly, a greater understanding of the factors that influence dietary patterns and diet quality in law enforcement personnel is needed to further inform potential interventions [ 18 ]. In particular, the identification of barriers to the consumption of healthy foods must be identified in the design of effective behaviour change interventions [ 19 – 21 ]. Law enforcement personnel are known to have a range of challenges including shift work, overtime, and lack of structured breaks due to their nature of their work [ 5 – 7 , 13 , 22 ] hence understanding their perception of barriers is useful.…”

Disordered Eating Attitudes and Food Choice Motives Among Individuals Who Follow a Vegan Diet in Brazil

“…However, this was a smaller study, possibly precluding detection of the associations observed herein. In fact, it is known that some eating motives are related to disordered eating attitudes among the general population . Although we found that levels of disordered eating were low, we were able to identify certain food choice motives that were associated with increased DEAS scores in vegans: “sociability,” “traditional eating,” “visual appeal,” “pleasure,” “social norms,” “social image,” “weight control,” and “affect regulation.” This aligns with previous research that shows that individuals more concerned with their appearance and social image, as well as emotional eaters, exhibit more disordered eating attitudes, while individuals who respect internal cues to eat (eg, hunger, satiety, desires) and have a non–weight related health concern tend to have a better relationship with their own bodies and healthier eating attitudes.…”

“…Indeed, a previous small-scale study (62 participants) that comprised vegan dieters mainly due to ethical reasons did not find a higher risk of eating disorder symptoms. 32 Moreover, eating motives commonly related to disordered eating attitudes (ie, weight control, affect regulation) 9,10 were not reported as important eating motives in our population. In fact, vegetarians (including vegans)…”

“…4 Also, some food choice motives (eg, weight control and affect regulation) may be associated with disordered eating attitudes in this population. 9,10 Nonetheless, the association between motivations to follow a vegan diet and eating disorder symptoms remains controversial in the literature. 11,12 The reasons for shifting and adhering to a vegan diet are various, such as religious and ethical beliefs, environmental concerns, cultural and social values, as well as health-related aspects.…”

“…In fact, a recent systematic review showed that vegetarianism (including veganism) appears to be associated with eating disorders . Also, some food choice motives (eg, weight control and affect regulation) may be associated with disordered eating attitudes in this population . Nonetheless, the association between motivations to follow a vegan diet and eating disorder symptoms remains controversial in the literature …”