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Personality and Perceived Health in Older Adults: The Five Factor Model in Primary Care

Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, New York.

Address correspondence to Paul R. Duberstein, Laboratory of Personality and Development, Box PSYCH, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Blvd., Rochester, NY 14642. E-mail: Paul_Duberstein{at}urmc.rochester.edu

Responses to specific questions tapping perceived health are associated with morbidity, mortality, and the use of health services, yet there has been little research on their personality correlates. We examined the associations between Five Factor Model personality traits and responses to four items extracted from the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36 in 266 primary care patients who were 65 years of age or older. Multivariate analyses controlling for age, gender, depressive symptoms, and physical disease burden showed that having a higher Neuroticism score was associated with worse perceived health in response to all items except "I am as healthy as anybody I know." Having a lower Extraversion score was associated with worse perceived health in response to the item "I expect my health to get worse." We discuss implications for understanding personality influences on morbidity, mortality, and health services utilization.

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