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Personality and dietary intake – findings in the Helsinki birth cohort study
Since the personality traits neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and conscientiousness are linked with resilience (adaptability to challenging situations) and resilient people usually comply with favorable health behaviors, Tiainen et al. (2013) decided to study the associations between food and nutrient intake, personality traits and resilience. A validated semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to measure diet and the NEO-personality inventory to assess personality in 1681 subjects. After adjusting for various factors such as age and education, openness in men was found to be linked with higher vegetable consumption and lower intakes of chocolate and confectionery. In women, the openness trait also correlated to more vegetables in the diet, as well as fruits. Including more vegetables in the diet was also associated with extraversion in women although higher meat consumption was also linked. Moreover, agreeableness was associated with a lower soft drink and conscientiousness with a higher fruit intake in women. Interestingly, when resilient and non-resilient subjects were compared, resilience in women was found to be associated with higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, fish and fiber. These results suggest personality traits are associated with dietary intake – especially subjects with resilient personality profiles had healthier dietary intakes. The associations were also stronger in women than in men. [NPID: personality, neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, resilience, adaptability]
Year: 2013
