Date Submitted
3-16-2026
Faculty Advisor
Leah Barreca
Abstract
Orthorexia nervosa is an eating disorder where individuals fixate on healthy and pure eating. They often eliminate major food groups from their diet to obtain optimum health. The long-term effects of orthorexia nervosa frequently include malnourishment, a weakened immune system, abnormally low heart rate, and electrolyte and hormone imbalances. This study focused on cross-cultural differences between Caucasian American and Japanese American individuals ages 18-65 to identify group differences in orthorexic behaviors. The study used the Test of Orthorexia Nervosa (TON-17), World Health Organization Quality of Life-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF), to test for orthorexia nervosa prevalence and quality of life. The clinical research question was to find the prevalence rates of orthorexia nervosa between Caucasian American and Japanese American individuals, and how it related to their quality of life. It was hypothesized that Japanese American individuals would score higher on the TON-17, which indicated positive symptoms for orthorexia nervosa. It was also hypothesized that Japanese American individuals would score higher on the WHOQOL-BREF in all four domains, which indicated a higher quality of life due to their belief that consuming healthy food positively impacted their quality of life. The primary statistical analysis for this study used descriptive statistics. Means and standard deviations were reported for all continuous variables. Quantitative data were analyzed using SPSS Statistics. Chi-square analyses were conducted to examine prevalence rates and associations among categorical variables. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to examine group differences in quality-of-life outcomes across the four WHOQOL-BREF domains.
