ABSTRACT
Background
Orthorexia nervosa (ON) has gained increasing attention among young adults, particularly among students in health-related fields. Although social media use and body-related attitudes have both been linked to disordered eating, their relative contribution to orthorexic tendencies remains unclear. This study aimed to examine the associations of social media addiction and weight bias with ON tendencies among female university students, with a particular focus on future dietitians.
Methods
The sample of our cross-sectional study consisted of 262 female university students from four universities. The participants’ ON tendencies were assessed with the Orthorexia-11 Scale (ORTO-11), social media addictions were assessed with the Social Media Addiction Scale-Student Form (SMAS-SF), and weight bias was assessed with the GAMS-27 scale.
Results
Overall, 45.8% of the participants exhibited a risk of orthorexic tendencies. Students in the nutrition and dietetics department were significantly more likely to be at risk of ON tendencies (56.5% vs. 35.1%, p < 0.001) and had higher weight bias scores (p < 0.001). Orthorexic students also demonstrated significantly greater weight bias compared with non-orthorexic students (p < 0.001). No significant association was found between social media addiction and risk of ON tendencies in descriptive or correlational analyzes. However, in linear regression analyzes, social media addiction showed a weak positive association with ORTO-11 scores (β = 0.144, p = 0.031), suggesting a limited and model-dependent relationship. Higher weight bias scores were significantly associated with lower ORTO-11 scores (β = −0.195, p = 0.002), indicating a higher risk of ON tendencies. Studying in the nutrition and dietetics department was also associated with lower ORTO-11 scores compared with other departments (β = −0.164, p = 0.025).
Conclusions
Weight bias was significantly associated with the risk of ON tendencies among female university students. These findings suggest that addressing weight bias within nutrition and dietetics education may be important for fostering stigma-aware future professionals. It should be noted that ON tendency risk in this study was identified using a scale-based classification and should be interpreted with caution.
Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Volume 39, Issue 3, June 2026. Read More