Is type-D personality trait(s) or state? An examination of type-D temporal stability in older Israeli adults in the community

Abstract

Background. Type D personality was suggested as a marker of poorer prognosis for patients of cardiovascular disease. It is defined by having a score of 10 or more on both sub-scales of the DS14 questionnaire, Social Inhibition (SI) and Negative Affectivity (NA). As Type D was designed to predict risk, its temporal stability is of prime importance. Methods. Participants in the current study were 285 community volunteers, who completed the DS14, and other personality scales, at a mean interval of six years. Results. The prevalence of Type D did not change. The component traits of Type D showed rank order stability. Type D caseness temporal stability was improved by using the sub-scales product as a criterion. Logistic hierarchical regression predicting Type D classification from Time1 demonstrated that the best predictors were Time1 scores on NA and SI, with the character trait of Cooperation, and the alexithymia score adding some predictive power. Conclusions. The temporal stability of the component traits, and of the prevalence of Type D were excellent. Temporal stability of Type D caseness may be improved by using a product threshold, rather than the current rule. Research is required in order to formulate the optimal timing for Type D measurement for predictive purposes.

Keywords: Personality; Predictive validity; Temporal stability; Type-D.

Figure 1. Six-year temporal stability of multiplicative-D-like criterion vs. Type D.

Note: on the x-axis the product of the DS14 sub-scale scores used as the cutoff point. On the y-axis the percentage of T1 multiplicative-D-like individuals who were still multiplicative-D-like at T2. For easy reference, parallel to the x-axis, the stability of Type D membership, 56.9%.