Five-factor personality dimensions and 3 healthrelated personality constructs as predictors of health

Abstract

Aim To examine how 5-factor personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness) and 3 higher-order health-related personality constructs (negative experience, optimistic control, and passivity) are related to self-reports of subjective health outcomes (positive and negative mood, physical symptoms, and general health concern) and objective health conditions (chronic illnesses, serious illnesses, and physical injuries). Methods The study was carried out on a sample of 822 healthy volunteers (438 women and 384 men, from 18 to 84 years). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses for measures of subjective health outcomes used as criterion variables and binary logistic regression analyses for objective health conditions used as criterion variables. Results Three health-related personality constructs signifcantly predicted all subjective health measures above and beyond 5-factor personality dimensions. Out of the 5-factor personality dimensions, neuroticism was most consistently related to worse subjective health outcomes, while out of 3 health-related personality constructs, negative experience was related to worse and optimistic control to better subjective health outcomes. When objective health conditions were taken into account as criterion variables, both sets of variables were relatively weak predictors. Only 5-factor personality traits as a group of variables signifcantly predicted chronic illnesses (?25 = 15.06; P = 0.012; Nagelkerke R2 = 0.032). Only neuroticism signifcantly predicted the presence of chronic illnesses (odds ratio [OR], 1.091; 95.0% confdence interval [CI], 1.040-1.144), whereas only optimistic control was related to more frequent physical injuries caused by accidents (OR, 1.285; 95.0% CI, 1.002-1.648). Conclusion Five-factor personality traits and 3 healthrelated personality constructs may be useful factors in a multidisciplinary approach to understanding personalityhealth relationship.