Introduction: Disgust sensitivity is directly and indirectly related to obsessive-compulsive disorder and emotion regulation and is intertwined with food contamination. This study aimed to investigate the structural relationships between disgust sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, emotion regulation, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Method: The present study is a cross-sectional, descriptive-correlational study. The statistical population was all students of Tabriz University in 2014-2015. 340 people were selected by simple random sampling and responded to the Orthorexia Questionnaire (Donini et al., 2005), Disgust Sensitivity Scale (Haidt et al., 1994), the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Questionnaire (Foa et al., 2002), and Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Gross and John, 2003). The causal relationships of variables were examined by path analysis in SmartPLS software.

Findings: There is a significant relationship between disgust sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, adaptive emotion regulation, and maladaptive emotion regulation with orthorexia. the indirect effect of disgust sensitivity on orthorexia through the mediating role of maladaptive emotion regulation, also indirect effect of disgust sensitivity on orthorexia through the mediating role of obsessive-compulsive disorder was significant.
Conclusion: Given the mediating role of emotion regulation and obsessive-compulsive disorder and its direct relationship with disgust sensitivity, therapeutic interventions for orthorexia should go beyond nutritional education.
Keywords: disgust sensitivity, obsessive-compulsive disorder, emotion regulation, orthorexia