title: Personality and diabetes mellitus incidence in a national sample.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To test whether personality traits were prospectively associated with type 2 diabetes incidence.
  
  
  METHODS
  The sample (n=6798) was derived from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey Epidemiological Follow-up Study cohort. We fit four logistic regression models to test whether neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, or the Type A behavior pattern predicted type 2 diabetes incidence. Model 1 included sex, age, and race/ethnicity. Model 2 added personality traits, Model 3 added depressive symptoms, and Model 4 added body mass index (BMI), hypertension, and cigarette smoking status as predictors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In Model 1 age was associated with increased risk of diabetes (2% per year); being black as opposed to white was associated with a three-fold increase in risk. In Model 2 age and being black were still significant and extraversion was associated with decreased risk (17% per standard deviation [SD]). In Model 3 age, being black, and extraversion were still significant. In addition, neuroticism was associated with decreased risk (26% per SD) and depressive symptoms were associated with increased risk (28% per SD). In Model 4 age, being black, neuroticism, and depressive symptoms were still significant. BMI was associated with increased risk (14% per SD) and extraversion was no longer significant.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Higher neuroticism was associated with reduced type 2 diabetes risk even after controlling for race/ethnicity, age, depressive symptoms, and BMI. Extraversion and Type A behavior were not significant after including covariates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK. Electronic address: icukic@staffmail.ed.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Iva
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Cukić
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weiss
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000368:Aged; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000208:ethnology / Q000523:psychology*; D005120:Extraversion, Psychological; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000075384:Neuroticism; D009749:Nutrition Surveys; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012306:Risk; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012907:Smoking / Q000453:epidemiology; D014434:Type A Personality; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D044465:White People / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
keywords: Depression; Health; Incidence; Neuroticism; Personality; Type 2 diabetes