Rome Orthorexia Nervosa Questionnaire (ORTO-15) Test
How the Scales are Structured
Who Usually Takes This Test?
See How You Compare
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.
Example Questions From the Test
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Never
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Never
- Always
- Often
- Sometimes
- Never
Rome Orthorexia Nervosa Questionnaire (ORTO-15) Test - Description and methodology of the test
Readers who want to examine whether healthy-eating rules are becoming rigid can use the Rome Orthorexia Nervosa Questionnaire (ORTO-15) Test as a structured self-report exercise. It is intended for people reflecting on food-related thoughts, choices, routines, and social effects. As an orthorexia nervosa questionnaire, it summarizes how strongly concern about food quality may be shaping everyday eating.
What This Assessment Explores
This assessment explores whether an interest in nutrition has become an obsessive preoccupation with healthy eating. Items examine calorie awareness, classifying foods as healthy or unhealthy, concern about preservatives, choosing quality over taste, monitoring routines, advance planning, intrusive thoughts, and beliefs about health, appearance, or well-being.
Other prompts address social effects, including avoiding invitations so the respondent will not eat food judged unhealthy, feeling more knowledgeable than others, or treating food rules as mandatory. The ORTO-15 test describes how strongly dietary concerns may organize daily life, not whether a diet is objectively healthy.
The Orthorexia Nervosa Scale (0-45) is interpreted through these result bands:
- Low tendency (0-25) suggests no pronounced adherence to healthy eating.
- Moderate tendency (26-30) suggests unstable or subclinical adherence.
- High tendency (31-45) indicates a clinically significant level of orthorexia.
Methodology and Scientific Basis
Each item uses four frequency choices-Always, Often, Sometimes, or Never-so respondents report how often a thought, rule, or behavior applies. The questions move from food-quality judgments to routines, thoughts, beliefs, and social choices. The questionnaire displays one result for this scale, using the bands listed above.
As an orthorexia screening questionnaire, the method depends on self-report. Current stress, illness, a temporary diet, exposure to strict wellness messages, limited self-awareness, or reluctance to disclose rigid habits can influence responses. The score is therefore most useful when considered alongside the person’s flexibility, distress, and everyday functioning.
Published ORTO-15 is a Donini-led self-report measure of orthorexic attitudes; this online questionnaire is separate but conceptually consistent with it, not their adaptation or validation. Dunn and Bratman’s review frames excessive preoccupation with healthy eating and possible interference or distress. Later, Meule and colleagues reported poor internal reliability and unacceptable model fit for ORTO-15 under its original scoring procedure. This online result can guide structured self-reflection and preliminary screening, but a high band alone cannot establish a formal diagnosis or determine the broader clinical picture.
- Donini, L. M., Marsili, D., Graziani, M. P., Imbriale, M., & Cannella, C. (2005). Orthorexia nervosa: Validation of a diagnosis questionnaire. Eating and Weight Disorders, 10(2), e28-e32. 10.1007/BF03327537
- Meule, A., Holzapfel, C., Brandl, B., Greetfeld, M., Hessler-Kaufmann, J. B., Skurk, T., Quadflieg, N., Schlegl, S., Hauner, H., & Voderholzer, U. (2020). Measuring orthorexia nervosa: A comparison of four self-report questionnaires. Appetite, 146, 104512. 10.1016/j.appet.2019.104512
- Dunn, T. M., & Bratman, S. (2016). On orthorexia nervosa: A review of the literature and proposed diagnostic criteria. Eating Behaviors, 21, 11-17. 10.1016/j.eatbeh.2015.12.006
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