Health experts frequently stress the significance of a balanced diet and regular exercise to lead a healthy life. Therefore, individuals make efforts to eat healthy and exercise regularly in today’s world. On the other hand, the obsession with healthy eating and the duration of exercise can increase the tendency towards physical activity as well as occupying life excessively. This can lead to obsessions regarding healthy eating and it can also create exercise addiction. This study aims to examine the relationship between exercise addiction and orthorexia nervosa (obsession with healthy eating) among sport center members in six provinces in the Eastern Anatolia Region, Turkey. This study was conducted with the relational screening method. Within the scope of the study, Exercise Addiction Scale (EAS) developed by Tekkurşun Demir, Hazar and Cicioğlu (2018) and the Orthorexia Nervosa (Obsession with Healthy Eating) Scale developed by Arusoğlu (2006) were used. In total, 903 participants being 616 men and 287 women participated in the study voluntarily. The participants were sport center members from the provinces of Bingöl, Bitlis, Elâzığ, Muş, Siirt and Van. The t-test was used to determine the difference between the descriptive statistics of the data and the means of two groups and ANOVA (the one-way analysis of variance) was used to test the difference between the means of two or more groups. SPSS 22.0 package program was used in the analysis of the data. Result: Significant differences were found between the variables of gender, age, marital status, satisfaction with physical appearance, educational status, year of membership, weekly exercise time, and the sub-dimensions of healthy eating and exercise addiction. Conclusion: It is believed that awareness-raising activities can be conducted about exercise and healthy nutrition for and other specialist personnel serving in sports centers to eliminate the deficiencies in this regard.

Healthy Eating, Exercise Addiction, Sports Center.