PERSONALITY FACTORS AND SELF-PERCEIVED HEALTH IN CHILEAN ELDERLY POPULATION

10^th World Congress on HEALTHCARE & TECHNOLOGIES

July 17-18, 2017 | Lisbon, Portugal

Pedro Olivares-Tirado, Gonzalo Leyton Galleguillos and Eduardo Salazar Burrows

Superintendence of Health, Chile

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Health Med Informat

Abstract :

Introduction: At the modern society, the cultural values and the family structure have been modified, and the current older generations tend to have a stronger requirement for autonomy and independence. Increased empirical evidence suggested that the stability of personality itself contributes to successful ageing, better quality of life and longevity. It has also been shown that selfperception of health (SPH) has shown its significant ability to predict; service utilization, emotional distress, morbidity and mortality. The purpose of this study is to investigate the association between personality traits and SPH in a representative sample of the older Chilean population. Methodology: The longitudinal data from the fourth (2009) waves of the Chilean Social Protection Survey. The sample was formed by 2655 subjects aged 65 and over. The Personality TIPI (Ten-Item Personality Inventory) Questionnaire was used to measure of the Big- Five personality dimensions; Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Emotional stability and Openness to experience. SPH status was assessed with a Likert-scale item question based on EU-SILC, containing six categories, which were aggregated into two categories: good health and poor health. The â�?�?fairâ�? category was exclude because in Chilean idiosyncrasy, this construct is generally evasive and ambiguous. A binary logistic regression was used to examine the association between personality traits and prevalence of SPH categories. MANOVA, was used to study personality factors between those with good and poor health in both strata; with and without medical conditions. Results: Higher scores of all five personality factors, were associated with good health. Those with the perception of poor health were more likely to be female, with lower education level and older than those with good health. With the exception of agreeableness, strong and significant associations with SPH were demonstrated for extraversion, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness, among elderly with medical conditions. Among elderly without medical problems, significant associations with SPH were demonstrated only for extraversion, agreeableness and emotional stability. Conclusion: There is a consistent association between personality factors and SPH throughout the older population. The results suggest that extraversion and openness traits could be acting as â�?�?protectorâ�? factors and agreeableness and conscientiousness traits as â�?�?resilientâ�? factors, facing to the health problems among elderly people.