title: Personality, chronic medical morbidity, and health-related quality of life among older persons.
abstract: This article examines the main and moderating effects of 3 personality characteristics on the association between chronic medical morbidity and health-related quality of life (HRQL) in a large (N = 5,279) community-based older sample. Reasonably high unique contributions of neuroticism, mastery, and self-efficacy to HRQL were found. The additional amounts of variance explained beyond and above medical morbidity and age vary from about 4% (bodily pain) to above 30% (mental health). Little empirical evidence was found for the moderating effects of personality. In conclusion, personality characteristics such as neuroticism, mastery, and self-efficacy influence the reported levels of HRQL. The extent to which this is due to an influence of personality on true versus perceived levels of HRQL is unclear.
authors.affiliation: Northern Centre for Healthcare Research, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. g.i.j.m.kempen@med.rug.nl
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Kempen
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jelicic
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ormel
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D002908:Chronic Disease / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009497:Neurotic Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D010551:Personality; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011788:Quality of Life