TITLE:
The Impact of Big Five Personality Traits on Older Europeans’ Physical Health
AUTHORS:
Eleni Serafetinidou, Christina Parpoula
KEYWORDS:
Big Five Personality Traits, Physical Health, Older Europeans, SHARE, Principal Component Analysis
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biomedical Science and Engineering,
Vol.17 No.2,
February
21,
2024
ABSTRACT: Investigating the role of Big Five
personality traits in relation to various health outcomes has been extensively
studied. The impact of “Big Five” on physical health is here explored for older
Europeans with a focus on examining age groups differences. The study sample
included 378,500 respondents derived from the seventh data wave of Survey of
Health, Aging and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). The physical health status of
older Europeans was estimated by constructing an index considering the combined
effect of well-established health indicators such as the number of chronic
diseases, mobility limitations, limitations with basic and instrumental
activities of daily living, and self-perceived health. This index was used for
an overall physical health assessment, for which the higher the score for an
individual, the worst health level. Then, through a dichotomization process
applied to the retrieved Principal Component Analysis scores, a two-group
discrimination (good or bad health status) of SHARE participants was obtained
as regards their physical health condition, allowing for further con-structing
logistic regression models to assess the predictive significance of “Big Five”
and their protective role for physical health. Results showed that neuroti-cism
was the most significant predictor of physical health for all age groups un-der
consideration, while extraversion, agreeableness and openness were not found to
significantly affect the self-reported physical health levels of midlife adults
aged 50 up to 64. Older adults aged 65 up to 79 were more prone to open-ness,
whereas the oldest old individuals aged 80 up to 105 were mainly affected by
openness and conscientiousness.