Introduction: Interest in healthy eating is not pathological until it escalates to the stage where obsessive thinking, compulsive behaviour, self-punishment, increasing restriction and all the other dynamics of conventional eating disorders occur. In the last two decades, there has been interest in a new term: orthorexia nervosa, when healthy eating can go too far and become paradoxically unhealthy. Purpose: The purpose of the master's thesis is to present orthorexia nervosa within sociocultural and psychological backgrounds and to determine the prevalence of orthorexia amongst first-year students of selected Slovenian faculties. Methods: A quantitative research method was used to collect data, in which we used the Dusseldorf questionnaire to detect orthorexia and the Beck Depression Inventory. The target population was students enrolled in the 1st year of full-time studies at the University of Ljubljana in the academic year 2022/2023. The survey was conducted online using the online tool 1KA from 20 March 2023 to 25 April 2023. The obtained data was statistically analysed using the IBM SPSS program version 27. Results: A total of 329 students participated in the research, 122 were men (37.1%) and 207 were women (62.9 %). It was found that 30 students (9.1 %) are at risk of developing orthorexia, and the presence of orthorexia is manifested in 11 students (3.3 %). Depression is present in 54 students (16.4 %). Results are showing that there is a statistically significant association between gender and orthorexia (p = 0,004) and between depression and orthorexia (p < 0,001). There is no statistically significant difference between medical and non-medical fields of study and the incidence of orthorexia (p = 0,895) and between orthorexia and activity on social networks (p = 0,406). Discussion and conclusion: Our results show higher orthorexic tendency in female students, but the results in the literature regarding the relationship between orthorexia and gender are inconsistent. We have not confirmed the association between body mass index and orthorexia, the opposite has been proven in only a few studies. Based on our research and foreign literature, it was concluded that both depression and a history of eating disorders are important factors in the occurrence or experience of orthorexia. The opposite association between activity on social networks and orthorexia has not been proven. Whether belonging to the medical field is a risk factor for orthorexia or even a protective factor against the onset of orthorexia remains unclear. a lot of research and unification of diagnostic criteria will be required for the accurate diagnosis of orthorexia and its inclusion in the classification of mental disorders.
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