Big Five personality traits may inform public health policy and preventive medicine: Evidence from a cross-sectional and a prospective longitudinal epidemiologic study in a Swiss community.
BACKGROUND
Some evidence documents the importance of personality assessments for health research and practise. However, no study has opted to test whether a short self-report personality inventory may comprehensively inform health policy.


METHODS
Data were taken from a population-based epidemiologic survey in Zurich, Switzerland, conducted from 2010-2012. A short form of the Big Five Inventory was completed by n=1155 participants (54.4% women; mean age=29.6 years), while health-related outcomes were taken from a comprehensive semi-structured clinical interview. A convenience subsample averaging n=171 participants additionally provided laboratory measures and n=133 were subsequently followed-up at least once over a maximal period of 6 months.


RESULTS
Personality traits, in particular high neuroticism and low conscientiousness, related significantly to poor environmental resources such as low social support (R(2)=0.071), health-impairing behaviours such as cannabis use (R(2)=0.071), and psychopathology, including negative affect (R(2)=0.269) and various mental disorders (R(2)=0.060-0.195). The proportion of total variance explained was R(2)=0.339 in persons with three or more mental disorders. Personality significantly related to some laboratory measures including total cholesterol (R(2)=0.095) and C-Reactive Protein (R(2)=0.062). Finally, personality prospectively predicted global psychopathological distress and vegetative symptoms over a 6-month observation period.


CONCLUSIONS
Personality relates consistently to poor socio-environmental resources, health-impairing behaviours and psychopathology. We also found some evidence for an association with metabolic and immune functions that are assumed to influence health. A short personality inventory could provide valuable information for preventive medicine when used as a means to screen entire populations for distinct risk exposure, in particular with respect to psychopathology.
Department of Applied Psychology, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland. Electronic address: michaelpascal.hengartner@zhaw.ch.
Michael P
MP
Hengartner
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Wolfram
W
Kawohl
Translational Neuromodeling Unit (TNU), Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Helene
H
Haker
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland; Institute of Psychiatry, Laboratory of Neuroscience (LIM 27), University of Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Wulf
W
Rössler
Department of Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Vladeta
V
Ajdacic-Gross
D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011446:Prospective Studies; D057566:Self Report; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology
Big Five; Epidemiology; Personality; Preventive medicine; Psychopathology; Public health