Influences of personality traits on quality of life after stroke.

OBJECTIVE

To investigate influences of personality traits on quality of life (QOL) over the first 3 months after stroke.

METHODS

Participants were interviewed 2 weeks after stroke with a follow-up after 3 months, with QOL (WHOQOL-BREF) measured on both occasions. Personality traits were ascertained at the 3-month examination using the Big Five Inventory, quantifying five personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. Influences of personality traits on QOL at the 2 examinations were investigated using repeated-measure analysis of variance (ANOVA) with adjustments for age, gender, number of years in education, use of antidepressants, stroke severity and physical disability.

RESULTS

In the 151 patients present at both examinations, neuroticism resulted in lower overall QOL levels on all 4 WHOQOL-BREF domains, and extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness influenced some, but not all, QOL domains. The openness trait had no influence on overall QOL levels but showed significant group-by-time interactions on psychological and environment QOL domains.

CONCLUSIONS

QOL over the 3-month period after stroke was influenced by several personality traits. The neuroticism trait influenced overall QOL levels but not trajectories, while the opposite was true for the openness trait.