Introducing ORTO-R: a revision of ORTO-15 Based on the re-assessment of original data

• Published in: Eating and weight disorders Vol. 26; no. 3; pp. 887 - 895
• Main Authors: Rogoza, Radosław, Donini, Lorenzo M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.04.2021
• Subjects: Factor Analysis, Statistical; Feeding and Eating Disorders - diagnosis; Feeding Behavior; Health Behavior; Humans; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Original; Original Article; Orthorexia Nervosa; Psychiatry; Self Report; Surveys and Questionnaires; Measurement; ORTO-R; Orthorexia nervosa; ORTO-15
• DOI: 10.1007/s40519-020-00924-5
• ISSN: 1590-1262; 1124-4909

Background Orthorexia nervosa has attracted significant attention in the field, however, alongside increasing knowledge, more and more gaps are being identified. One of the fundamental problems concerns measurement of orthorexia nervosa. The most commonly used self-report measure, the ORTO-15, demonstrated an unstable factorial structure across different populations. Therefore, one might question whether the knowledge obtained from past research using ORTO-15 is valid or not. The aim of the present paper is to re-analyse original data used for the validation of ORTO-15 to assess its factorial structure and propose its revision, the ORTO-R. Methods The description of the sample and procedure corresponds to the one reported in Donini et al. (Eat Weight Disord 10:28–32, 2005). N  = 525 subjects were enrolled. To evaluate whether the factorial structure of ORTO-15, we used confirmatory factor analysis. The results revealed that the ORTO-15 indeed does not capture the structure of orthorexia nervosa adequately and revision is needed. The ORTO-R contains six items from ORTO-15, which were identified as the best markers of orthorexia nervosa. Discussion and conclusion In the current paper, we present a refined measure of orthorexia nervosa—the ORTO-R. It is based on a frequently used ORTO-15, overcoming its main limitations. We strongly believe that the current work will act as a bridge, linking past with the future research, and that alongside a new measure, the field of research on orthorexia nervosa will move forward. Level of evidence Level V, descriptive study.