Structural validation of the ORTO-12-FR questionnaire among a French sample as a first attempt to assess orthorexia nervosa in France

Purpose: To the best of our knowledge, no scientific publications on orthorexia nervosa have been based on a French population. The goal of our study was to confirm the factor structure of the French version of the ORTO-15 questionnaire. Methods: An online survey (N = 768) was conducted asking participants (84.77% were women) to answer several questions about their dietary habits and to assess orthorexia nervosa using the ORTO-15 scale. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used for the validation. Results: Given our results, we deemed it necessary to adapt the French version of the ORTO-15 questionnaire by omitting three items. The CFA supported the ORTO-12-FR (composed of 12 items and addressing three domains: rational, emotional, and behavioral) as the better-fitting model, with an internal consistency of 0.73. The Comparative Fit Index value was 0.93, the Tucker–Lewis Index was 0.90, and the Root Mean-Square Error of Approximation was 0.05. Conclusions: Our results provide evidence for the reliability of ORTO-12-FR with a French population. Level of evidence: V, descriptive cross-sectional study. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.