Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Faculty of Health/School of Psychology and Psychiatry, Witten/Herdecke University, Witten, Germany.
J Pers. 2023 Apr;91(2):271-284. doi: 10.1111/jopy.12716. Epub 2022 Apr 19.
Several personality traits increase the risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Because many of these traits are correlated, their associations with disease risk could reflect shared variance, rather than unique contributions of each trait. We examined a higher-order personality trait of Stability as related to preclinical atherosclerosis and tested whether any such relationship might be explained by correlated variation in cardiometabolic risk factors.
Among 798 community volunteers, lower-order traits of Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were modeled as latent variables (from self- and informant ratings) and used to estimate the second-order factor, Stability. Cardiometabolic risk was similarly modeled from indicators of glycemic control, blood pressure, adiposity, and lipids. Carotid artery atherosclerosis was measured as intima-media thickness (IMT) by duplex ultrasonography.
A structural equation model incorporating direct and indirect effects showed lower Stability associated with greater IMT, and this relationship was accounted for by the indirect pathway via cardiometabolic risk. Secondary analyses showed that: (1) Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were unrelated to IMT independent of Stability; and (2) Stability predicted variation in IMT when estimated from informant-, but not self-rated, traits.
Personality traits may associate with atherosclerotic burden through their shared, rather than unique, variance, as reflected in Stability.
多种人格特质会增加动脉粥样硬化性心血管疾病的风险。由于这些特质大多是相关的，它们与疾病风险的关联可能反映了共同的方差，而不是每个特质的独特贡献。我们研究了稳定性这一人格特质的高阶表现与临床前动脉粥样硬化的关系，并检验了这种关系是否可以通过相关的心血管代谢风险因素的变化来解释。
在 798 名社区志愿者中，神经质、宜人性和尽责性的低阶特质被建模为潜在变量（来自自我和知情人评分），并用于估计二阶因素稳定性。心血管代谢风险也同样通过血糖控制、血压、肥胖和血脂的指标进行建模。颈动脉粥样硬化通过双功能超声测量内膜中层厚度（IMT）进行测量。
一个包含直接和间接效应的结构方程模型显示，稳定性较低与 IMT 较大有关，这种关系通过心血管代谢风险的间接途径来解释。二次分析表明：（1）神经质、宜人性和尽责性与独立于稳定性的 IMT 无关；（2）当从知情人评分而不是自我评分中估计稳定性时，它可以预测 IMT 的变化。
人格特质可能通过其共同的而非独特的方差与动脉粥样硬化负担相关，这反映在稳定性中。
