Associations between dimensional personality measures and preclinical atherosclerosis: The cardiovascular risk in Young Finns study

Objective ess how multidimensional personality–trait theories, such as the Psychobiological Model of Temperament and Character, and the Five-factor Model of Personality, are associated with subclinical atherosclerosis as indicated by carotid intima-media thickness (IMT). The analysis was designed to tolerate non-linear development in which the same personality profiles can have multiple final outcomes and different antecedent profiles can have the same final outcome. s n and 844 women (average age 31.6 year, s.d. = 5.0, range = 24–39) provided data on IMT and traits of the psychobiological model, 725 men and 1011 women were assessed for IMT and the five-factor model (age 37.7 year, s.d. = 5.0, range = 30–45). Robust multidimensional Hotelling’s T2 statistic was used to detect personality differences between participants with high IMT and others. Model-based clustering method further explored the effect. s with a high level of subclinical atherosclerosis within the sample (highest IMT-decile) had a combined higher persistence (i.e., were perseverative or perfectionistic), more disorganized (schizotypal) character, and more antisocial temperamental configuration than others (P = 0.019). No effect was found for the five-factor model (P = 0.978). Traditional methods that did not account for multidimensionality and nonlinearity did not detect an association. sion logical well-being may have positive effects on health that reduce atherosclerosis in the population as a whole. Increased subclinical atherosclerosis was associated with a profile that combines known risk factors, such as cynical distrust and hostile tendencies. More frequent use of statistical procedures that can cope with non-linear interactions in complex psychobiological systems may facilitate scientific advances in health promotion.