Orthorexia Nervosa Tendencies of Liver Transplant Patients Receiving Immunosuppressant Treatment: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract One of the most important factors after organ transplantation is immunotherapy, which is effective in reducing immune response to prevent post-transplant graft rejection, while another factor is a balanced nutrition. With these considerations in mind, this study aimed to determine the orthorexia nervosa tendencies of liver transplant patients receiving immunosuppressant treatment. This descriptive and cross-sectional study was carried out with patients who underwent liver transplantation at the liver transplantation institute of a university hospital in eastern Turkey. A sociodemographic information form and ORTO-R were used to collect data. The data were collected from patients who attended their follow-ups between May and August 2022. The mean age of the 176 patients who were receiving immunosuppressive treatment was 58.55±7.56, while 86.4% had not received any education on nutrition. The mean ORTO-R score of the patients was 17.09±2.70, which indicated moderate orthorexia. In our study, it was concluded that the majority of the patients who were using immunosuppressive medication had not received any education on nutrition, and they were moderately orthorexic. It should be kept in mind that this obsessive form of eating will affect balanced nutrition among patients who have gone through a major transplant process. To make the drug-diet interaction in patients using immunosuppressive drugs after organ transplantation beneficial, ensure that they have a sufficient and balanced diet, and make this diet sustainable, it is important to monitor these patients. Additionally, it is thought that evaluating the pre-transplant orthorexia nervosa tendencies of advanced-stage liver transplant patients will increase post-transplant success. Level of evidence: Level V. Cross-sectional survey-based study