RESUMO
Food neophobia, known as an avoidance of the consumption of unknown foods, can negatively impact nutritional quality. In orthorexia nervosa, there is an excessive mental effort to consume healthy food. Individuals exhibiting symptoms of food neophobia and orthorexia nervosa may experience food restrictions. This study aimed to assess food neophobia levels and orthorexia nervosa tendencies among university students, investigate the potential association between the two constructs, and explore the effect of the demographic characteristics of the participants on the variables. This is a descriptive cross-sectional study. The study sample consisted of 609 students enrolled at Recep Tayyip Erdogan University. The data were collected through Google Forms using a sociodemographic information form, the Food Neophobia Scale, and the ORTO-11 scale. Ethics committee approval and institutional permission were obtained for the study. Of the students participating in the survey, 71.9% were female, 14.6% were classified as neophobic, and 47.1% had orthorexia nervosa symptoms. The mean scores from the Food Neophobia Scale (39.41 ± 9.23) and the ORTO-11 scale (27.43 ± 5.35) were in the normal range. Food neophobia was significantly higher among those who did not consume alcohol. Orthorexia nervosa symptoms were significantly more common among married people. In the correlation analysis, no significant relationship was found between age, food neophobia, and orthorexia nervosa. It can be said that food neophobia in this study is similar to in other studies conducted on university students. In addition, about half of the participants had symptoms of orthorexia nervosa. This result is higher compared to other studies conducted with university students. The findings of this study indicate that the participants care about the healthfulness of food.
RESUMO
Nutrition is a basic need and is crucial for the persistence of good health. This awareness has increased since December 2019 during the pandemic that the world is still facing. The importance of nutrition in infectious diseases was emphasized but the relationship between the severity of symptoms and nutrition status of individuals was not examined. This study compared the nutrition status of patients with COVID-19 admitted to the emergency service and the clinical severity of the disease. Based on the nutrition status of the 337 patients included in the study, 87.2% (294) of the patients were in the low-risk group while 12.8% (43) were in the high-risk group in terms of malnutrition. In the analysis conducted to examine the effect of nutrition on the severity of disease, the relationship between NRS 2002 and dyspnea, cough, weakness, fever, and other symptoms was statistically significant. It was concluded that healthy nutrition is crucial during the pandemic, and it is necessary to consider nutrition improvement as a way to cope with emerging viral infections.
