Background: A topic more frequently discussed nowadays is orthorexia nervosa (ON), which is an atypical eating disorder where the person is obsessed with healthy eating to avoid illness and disease. Signs of ON often begin with a wish for getting rid of bad habits, such as eating meals containing a lot of sugar and fat. Eventually the person’s behaviour changes and eating healthy becomes an unhealthy obsession that takes over the everyday life. Recently, it has also been related to excessive training, especially in Swedish media. Furthermore, it has been shown that athletes are at higher risk for developing ON. However, there is insufficient research in this area, as well as the ON prevalence among adolescent girls and correlation between ON and body mass index adjusted for children and adolescents. To investigate this, as well as the correlation between ON and hand strength, which is used as an indicator of general muscle strength, is therefore of great importance. Aim: The aim of this study was to compare ON prevalence among adolescent girls in seventh grade in a sports secondary school and adolescent girls in seventh grade in general secondary schools and investigate the correlation between ON and BMI and ON and hand strength. Method: A total of 48 girls in seventh grade participated in the study: 28 girls from the sports secondary school and 20 girls from the general secondary schools. To investigate the ON prevalence the questionnaire ORTO-15 was used. To calculate BMI standing length and body weight was measured and thereafter adjusted to the cut-off points constructed by the International Obesity Task Force. Hand strength was registered with a hand grip dynamometer. Results: There was no significant difference in ON prevalence between the girls in the sports secondary school and the general secondary schools. However, a majority of all girls had an indication of ON. Furthermore, a higher indication of ON had a small correlation with both a higher BMI and a higher muscle strength. Conclusion: More studies and better instruments are needed to further investigate ON prevalence among adolescent girls, as well as relationships between ON and BMI and ON and hand strength. Interesting to consider in further research is also how these variables evolve over time in persons with ON. / Malmö Youth Sport Study / Halmstad Youth Sport Study
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-34064 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Svensson, Miriam |
| Publisher | Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för ekonomi, teknik och naturvetenskap |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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