The role of personality traits in predicting days lost due to illness: evidence from the World Bank’s Skills toward Employment and Productivity survey

Abstract

This paper examined the associations between the “big-five” personality traits (i.e., extraversion, conscientiousness, openness, stability and agreeableness) and days lost due to illness or health problems using data from the World Bank’s Skills toward Employment and Productivity survey on Ghana. Based on the distribution of the dependent variable (days lost due to illness), a standard binary logistic regression technique was employed. In addition, to check the robustness of our results, the negative binomial and ordinary least squares regression techniques were used. The findings showed that females are more likely to report days lost due to illness than males. Consistent with existing literature, stability was found to be inversely associated with number of days lost due to illness. Additionally, openness was found to be inversely related to the number of days lost due to illness suggesting that individuals who are more curious, novel, cultivated, aesthetic, sensitive, independent minded, intellectual and creative are less likely to report days lost due to illness. These findings add to the growing evidence that personality traits are associated with life outcomes and can be used to predict self-reported health outcomes.