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Association of personality with the development and persistence of obesity: a meta-analysis based on individual-participant data.

Jokela, M; Hintsanen, M; Hakulinen, C; Batty, GD; Nabi, H; Singh-Manoux, A; Kivimäki, M; (2013) Association of personality with the development and persistence of obesity: a meta-analysis based on individual-participant data. Obes Rev , 14 (4) 315 - 323. 10.1111/obr.12007. Green open access

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Abstract

Personality is thought to affect obesity risk but before such information can be incorporated into prevention and intervention plans, robust and converging evidence concerning the most relevant personality traits is needed. We performed a meta-analysis based on individual-participant data from nine cohort studies to examine whether broad-level personality traits predict the development and persistence of obesity (n = 78,931 men and women; mean age 50 years). Personality was assessed using inventories of the Five-Factor Model (extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness to experience). High conscientiousness - reflecting high self-control, orderliness and adherence to social norms - was associated with lower obesity risk across studies (pooled odds ratio [OR] = 0.84; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.80-0.88 per 1 standard deviation increment in conscientiousness). Over a mean follow-up of 5.4 years, conscientiousness predicted lower obesity risk in initially non-obese individuals (OR = 0.88, 95% CI = 0.85-0.92; n = 33,981) and was associated with greater likelihood of reversion to non-obese among initially obese individuals (OR = 1.08, 95% CI = 1.01-1.14; n = 9,657). Other personality traits were not associated with obesity in the pooled analysis, and there was substantial heterogeneity in the associations between studies. The findings indicate that conscientiousness may be the only broad-level personality trait of the Five-Factor Model that is consistently associated with obesity across populations.

Type: Article
Title: Association of personality with the development and persistence of obesity: a meta-analysis based on individual-participant data.
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1111/obr.12007
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/obr.12007
Language: English
Additional information: © 2012 The Authors. obesity reviews © 2012 International Association for the Study of Obesity. Full text made available to UCL Discovery by kind permission of Wiley. PMCID: PMC3717171
Keywords: Longitudinal analysis, meta‐analysis, obesity, personality, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Databases, Factual, Female, Humans, Logistic Models, Male, Middle Aged, Obesity, Observational Study as Topic, Odds Ratio, Personality, Personality Inventory, Young Adult
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1378661
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