Personality and physical health

•Associations between C, N and physical health are highly replicable.•Studies are now focussing on key mediators and moderators such as health behaviour.•Longitudinal data is showing the potential importance of personality change for health.•Moving forward, experience sampling and other longitudinal data collections may provide key information for health interventions.

In this review, we consider the recent literature on the relations between personality traits and health. We focus largely, though not exclusively, on studies based on the Five Factor Model (FFM) and physical health. We give particular attention to those studies which have moved beyond simple associations between traits with outcomes to consider mediators, moderators and dynamic interactions. These kinds of studies move us away from asking questions relating to if traits are associated with health outcomes, to questions concerning how traits are associated with health outcomes. We consider the roles of new data collection and analytic methods, and the potential for studies of traits and health to inform interventions for improving health at an individual and societal level.