title: Personality and alcohol consumption: Pooled analysis of 72,949 adults from eight cohort studies.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The role of personality as a determinant of alcohol consumption has long been debated, but prospective evidence is scarce.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed individual participant meta-analysis to examine the association between the Five-Factor Model personality traits (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) and alcohol consumption using data from eight cohort studies sampled from the USA, UK, Germany, and Australia (total n=72,949; mean age=50 years, 54% female). Alcohol consumption was categorized into abstinence, moderate consumption, and heavy consumption.
  
  
  RESULTS
  After adjustment for age, sex, and race, higher extraversion (odds ratio for 1 standard deviation's increase in the score; 95% confidence interval: 1.14; 1.01-1.29) and lower conscientiousness (0.89; 0.79-1.00) were associated with increased risk of transitioning from moderate to heavy alcohol consumption over time, and also with heavy alcohol consumption. Lower extraversion (0.91; 0.85-0.98), higher agreeableness (1.09; 1.02-1.15), and lower openness (0.90; 0.86-0.95) were associated with increased odds of transitioning from moderate consumption to abstinence as well as with alcohol abstinence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings from this individual-participant meta-analysis suggest that high and increasing alcohol consumption is more common among extraverts and those low on conscientiousness whereas high agreeableness and low openness to experience may increase odds of reducing alcohol consumption and preferring abstinence.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland. Electronic address: christian.hakulinen@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hakulinen
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland; National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Elovainio
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK; Centre for Cognitive Ageing and Cognitive Epidemiology, University of Edinburgh, UK; Alzheimer Scotland Dementia Research Centre, University of Edinburgh, UK.
authors.forename: G David
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Batty
authors.affiliation: Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Finland.
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Virtanen
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, UK; Department of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kivimäki
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jokela
mesh_terms: D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D001315:Australia; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010551:Personality; D006113:United Kingdom; D014481:United States
keywords: Addiction epidemiology; Drinking; Meta-analysis; Psychology; The Five-Factor Model
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