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Personality and Health Care Decision-Making Style

¹ Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina.
² Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Address correspondence to Kathryn E. Flynn, PhD, Center for Clinical and Genetic Economics, Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University Medical Center, PO Box 17969, Durham, NC 27715. E-mail: kathryn.flynn{at}duke.edu

Using the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study Graduate Survey (N = 5,830), a population-based cohort of older adults (most aged 63–66 years), we explored relationships between five factors of personality and four preference types that account for multiple components of the health care decision-making process (information exchange, deliberation, and selection of treatment choice). After adjustment for personal, health, social, and economic factors, we found that increased conscientiousness and openness to experience and decreased agreeableness and neuroticism corresponded to preferring the most active decision-making style compared with the least active. A better understanding of how personality traits relate to patient decision-making styles may help clinicians tailor treatment discussions to the needs and preferences of individual patients.