title: Is personality associated with cancer incidence and mortality? An individual-participant meta-analysis of 2156 incident cancer cases among 42,843 men and women.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The putative role of personality in cancer risk has been controversial, and the evidence remains inconclusive.
  
  
  METHODS
  We pooled data from six prospective cohort studies (British Household Panel Survey; Health and Retirement Study; Household, Income, and Labour Dynamics in Australia; Midlife in the United Survey; Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduate; and Sibling samples) for an individual-participant meta-analysis to examine whether personality traits of the Five Factor Model (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) were associated with the incidence of cancer and cancer mortality in 42,843 cancer-free men and women at baseline (mean age 52.2 years, 55.6% women).
  
  
  RESULTS
  During an average follow-up of 5.4 years, there were 2156 incident cancer cases. In random-effects meta-analysis adjusted for age, sex, and race/ethnicity, none of the personality traits were associated with the incidence of all cancers or any of the six site-specific cancers included in the analysis (lung, colon, breast, prostate, skin, and leukaemia/lymphoma). In the three cohorts with cause-specific mortality data (421 cancer deaths among 21,835 participants), none of the personality traits were associated with cancer mortality.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that personality is not associated with increased risk of incident cancer or cancer-related mortality.
authors: 1] Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 1A, PO Box 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland [2] Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Jokela
authors: 1] Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK [2] Department of Psychology, Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland [3] Department of Psychology, Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland.
authors: G D
authors: GD
authors: Batty
authors: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 1A, PO Box 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors: T
authors: T
authors: Hintsa
authors: 1] Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 1A, PO Box 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland [2] Finnish Institute of National Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Elovainio
authors: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Siltavuorenpenger 1A, PO Box 9, 00014 Helsinki, Finland.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Hakulinen
authors: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, London, UK.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Kivimäki
mesh_terms: D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007206:Individuality; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009026:Mortality; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D012307:Risk Factors; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014922:Wisconsin / Q000453:epidemiology