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. 2022 Mar:59:103648.
doi: 10.1016/j.msard.2022.103648. Epub 2022 Feb 3.

Association of personality traits with physical function, cognition, and mood in multiple sclerosis

Anne Kever  1 , Elizabeth L S Walker  2 , Claire S Riley  3 , Rock A Heyman  2 , Zongqi Xia  2 , Victoria M Leavitt  4
Affiliations

Association of personality traits with physical function, cognition, and mood in multiple sclerosis

Anne Kever et al. Mult Scler Relat Disord. 2022 Mar.

Abstract

Background: Growing literature supports the hypothesis that personality influences health outcomes. Few studies have examined the association between personality traits and key clinical manifestations in persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS).

Objective: To investigate whether personality traits are associated with physical function, cognition, and depression in persons with MS.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we analyzed data from two cohorts (UPMC, n = 365 and CUIMC, n = 129). Participants completed a personality scale (assessing neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness) and validated surveys measuring physical function, cognition, and depression. Stepwise linear regressions were used to evaluate associations between personality traits and outcome measures.

Results: Consistently across cohorts, higher extraversion was associated with better physical function, whereas higher neuroticism was associated with worse depression. In the first cohort, higher extraversion was associated with better cognition, while higher neuroticism was associated with greater risk for memory impairment in the second cohort. Relationships were independent of age and disease duration.

Conclusion: Findings suggest a potentially protective role of extraversion, and a harmful role of neuroticism, in MS-specific patient-reported clinical outcomes. Increased understanding of the interplay between personality and health outcomes may inform risk models for physical decline, cognitive impairment, and depression in pwMS.

Keywords: Cognition; Mood; Multiple sclerosis; Personality traits; Physical function.

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Conflict of interest statement

The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

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Figure 1
Study design
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