Is Healthy Neuroticism Associated with Chronic Conditions? A Coordinated Integrative Data Analysis

Sara J. Weston, Eileen K. Graham, Nicholas A. Turiano, Damaris Aschwanden, Tom Booth, Fleur Harrison, Bryan D. James, Nathan A. Lewis, Steven R. Makkar, Swantje Mueller, Kristi M. Wisniewski, Tomiko Yoneda, Ruixue Zhaoyang, Avron Spiro, Johanna Drewelies, Gert G. Wagner, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Ilja Demuth, Sherry Willis, K. Warner SchaieMartin Sliwinski, Richard A. Lipton, Mindy Katz, Ian J. Deary, Elizabeth M. Zelinski, David A. Bennett, Perminder S. Sachdev, Henry Brodaty, Julian N. Trollor, David Ames, Margaret J. Wright, Denis Gerstorf, Mathias Allemand, Graciela Muniz-Terrera, Andrea M. Piccinin, Scott M. Hofer, Daniel K. Mroczek

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

Early investigations of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction with regards to health have been promising, but to date, there have been no systematic investigations of this interaction that account for the various personality measurement instruments, varying populations, or aspects of health. The current study - the second of three - uses a coordinated analysis approach to test the impact of the neuroticism by conscientiousness interaction on the prevalence and incidence of chronic conditions. Using 15 pre-existing longitudinal studies (N >49,375), we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the relationship between neuroticism and having hypertension (OR = 1.00,95%CI[0.98,1.02]), diabetes (OR = 1.02[0.99,1.04]), or heart disease (OR = 0.99[0.97,1.01]). Similarly, we found that conscientiousness did not moderate the prospective relationship between neuroticism and onset of hypertension (OR = 0.98[0.95,1.01]), diabetes (OR = 0.99[0.94,1.05]), or heart disease (OR = 0.98[0.94,1.03]). Heterogeneity of effect sizes was largely nonsignificant, with one exception, indicating that the effects are consistent between datasets. Overall, we conclude that there is no evidence that healthy neuroticism, operationalized as the conscientiousness by neuroticism interaction, buffers against chronic conditions.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number267
JournalCollabra: Psychology
Volume6
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 12 2020

Keywords

  • chronic condition
  • conscientiousness
  • coordinated analysis
  • health
  • healthy neuroticism
  • longitudinal

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Psychology

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