کد مقاله | کد نشریه | سال انتشار | مقاله انگلیسی | نسخه تمام متن |
---|---|---|---|---|
949142 | 1475911 | 2016 | 8 صفحه PDF | دانلود رایگان |
• The aim was to evaluate whether brief personality inventories could be useful as cost-effective screening instruments.
• This study combines cross-sectional survey data, laboratory measures and a prospective longitudinal study.
• Personality relates to psychopathology and also to poor socio-environmental resources and health-impairing behaviours.
• Personality traits correlate with some metabolic and immune functions that are assumed to influence health.
• Neuroticism significantly predicts psychopathology and vegetative symptoms in a prospective study over six months
BackgroundSome evidence documents the importance of personality assessments for health research and practise. However, no study has opted to test whether a short self-report personality inventory may comprehensively inform health policy.MethodsData were taken from a population-based epidemiologic survey in Zurich, Switzerland, conducted from 2010–2012. A short form of the Big Five Inventory was completed by n = 1155 participants (54.4% women; mean age = 29.6 years), while health-related outcomes were taken from a comprehensive semi-structured clinical interview. A convenience subsample averaging n = 171 participants additionally provided laboratory measures and n = 133 were subsequently followed-up at least once over a maximal period of 6 months.ResultsPersonality traits, in particular high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, related significantly to poor environmental resources such as low social support (R2 = 0.071), health-impairing behaviours such as cannabis use (R2 = 0.071), and psychopathology, including negative affect (R2 = 0.269) and various mental disorders (R2 = 0.060–0.195). The proportion of total variance explained was R2 = 0.339 in persons with three or more mental disorders. Personality significantly related to some laboratory measures including total cholesterol (R2 = 0.095) and C-Reactive Protein (R2 = 0.062). Finally, personality prospectively predicted global psychopathological distress and vegetative symptoms over a 6-month observation period.ConclusionsPersonality relates consistently to poor socio-environmental resources, health-impairing behaviours and psychopathology. We also found some evidence for an association with metabolic and immune functions that are assumed to influence health. A short personality inventory could provide valuable information for preventive medicine when used as a means to screen entire populations for distinct risk exposure, in particular with respect to psychopathology.
Journal: Journal of Psychosomatic Research - Volume 84, May 2016, Pages 44–51