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.
Highlights
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
Main effects Consistent with prior research, the meta-analytic effects showed that greater odds of hypertension were concurrently associated with higher levels of neuroticism (OR = 1.07, 95% CI = [1.02, 1.13]) and lower levels of conscientiousness (OR = 0.93, 95% CI = [0.89, 0.98])
The current study provides no evidence that high levels of neuroticism may be healthy for individuals who have high levels of conscientiousness, nor does it find that the negative effects of neuroticism on health are buffered by high levels of conscientiousness
Summary
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]). 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]). A Coordinated Integrative Data Analysis (Graham et al, 2017) Findings such as these have led some to regard neuroticism to be a public health concern (Lahey, 2009). Still others find that neuroticism is linked to better health, most notably greater longevity (Brickman, Yount, Blaney, Rothberg, & De-Nour, 1996; Ragland & Brand, 1988)
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