Five‐Factor Personality Traits and Age Trajectories of Self‐Rated Health: The Role of Question Framing

Abstract

We examined the influence of personality traits on mean levels and age trends in four single-item measures of self-rated health: General rating, comparison to age peers, comparison to past health, and expectations for future health. Community-dwelling participants (N = 1,683) completed 7,474 self-rated health assessments over a period of up to 19-years. In hierarchical linear modeling analyses, age-associated declines differed across the four health items. Across age groups, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, low extraversion, and low openness were associated with worse health ratings, with notable differences across the four health items. Furthermore, high neuroticism predicted steeper declines in health ratings involving temporal comparisons. We consider theoretical implications regarding the mechanisms behind associations among personality traits and self-rated health.

Personality factors in the elderly: The relationship between cognitive functioning and depressive symptoms

“…Neuroticism, besides being a risk factor to trigger depression, represents a risk for functional decline among the elderly in the future (Tsubota-Utsugi et al, 2014) and it is associated to Alzheimer's Disease (Terracciano et al, 2014). Some studies state the hypothesis that Neuroticism is related to reduced brain volume (Knutson, Momenan, Rawlings, Fong, & Hommer, 2001) and to risk behaviors to health such as metabolic syndrome, early mortality (Löckenhoff et al, 2012), and inflammation (Sutin et al, 2010). Additionally, individuals with high Neuroticism levels tend to evaluate their health pessimistically and present unfavorable social comparisons (Löckenhoff et al, 2012).…”

“…Some studies state the hypothesis that Neuroticism is related to reduced brain volume (Knutson, Momenan, Rawlings, Fong, & Hommer, 2001) and to risk behaviors to health such as metabolic syndrome, early mortality (Löckenhoff et al, 2012), and inflammation (Sutin et al, 2010). Additionally, individuals with high Neuroticism levels tend to evaluate their health pessimistically and present unfavorable social comparisons (Löckenhoff et al, 2012).…”

“…High Neuroticism indices represent a risk factor to the development of mild cognitive decline (MCD) and dementia in the elderly (Chapman et al, 2012;Kuzma et al, 2011;Löckenhoff et al, 2012;Terracciano et al, 2014;Wilson et al, 2003). Neuroticism seems to be associated with risk behaviors to health such as metabolic syndrome, low immune responses, and early mortality.…”

Who Looks Forward to Better Health? Personality Factors and Future Self-Rated Health in the Context of Chronic Illness

“…They found that high Conscientiousness and Extraversion, and low Neuroticism were linked to better comparative expectations for future health in the bivariate analyses, and in the path analysis through preventive health behaviors, only Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were significant predictors. Results from a large lifespan study demonstrated that Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Neuroticism were not associated with FSRH prospectively, whereas Extraversion and Openness were [7]. Neuroticism was, however, a significant predictor of declines in FSRH over time.…”

“…This model posits that the evaluation of subjective health is a necessarily contextualized multi-stage process that goes beyond the initial assessment of current objective health indicators that may influence future health (e.g., symptoms, behavior, and genetics). Accordingly, SRH is heavily influenced by other contextual factors such as personality and expectations which can contour the appraisals of these objective indicators [1,7,8]. Indeed, certain personality factors associated with negative affect, such as Neuroticism, are known to influence the perception and evaluation of symptoms [9].…”