Psychiatrists and psychologists have long understood that an individual's personality can define how he or she views the world around them, reacts to situations, and interacts with others. It now appears that personality traits can be linked to the frequency with which older adults use expensive health care services.
A study, published today in the journal The Milbank Quarterly, finds that certain measurable personality characteristics can be correlated to health care consumption, in some instances increasing use high cost health care services such as emergency room visits and nursing home stays by 20 to 30 percent and even higher.
"This is the first study to show that personality traits predispose some older adults to use several expensive acute and long-term care services," said Bruce Friedman, M.P.H., Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Public Health Sciences and lead author of the study. "It is important for health care systems to recognize that personality characteristics are associated with how individuals use health care services, and design interventions that redirect patients towards lower cost solutions to their health problems that are just as effective."
The study was based on data collected from 1,074 individuals over the age of 65 who participated in study funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The study, called the Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration, involved participants from upstate New York, West Virginia, and Ohio who were deemed likely to be high cost patients.
Participants completed a questionnaire which assigns a score for each of the "big five" personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The survey, called the NEO-FFI, asks individuals to respond to questions about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, such as whether they are easy to laugh, are courteous to others, get into arguments easily, feel inferior, or like to be around other people.
The survey results enable researchers to understand each individual's personality profile and how these traits may impact their health care decisions. For example, people on the high end of the neuroticism scale tend to be more likely to feel angry, anxious, depressed, or vulnerable. An individual with a high score in openness to experience is generally more intellectually curious, imaginative, and creative. People who are high in agreeableness are compassionate, altruistic, and cooperative. Those who score low tend to be suspicious or antagonistic. People who score on the high end of the conscientiousness scale are dependable, reliable, and goal-oriented.
The researchers then looked at which health care services these individuals utilized over a two year period. This information was recorded in daily logs kept by the study participants. The study focuses on seven high cost health care services: emergency department (ED) visits, hospital stays, hospital-based rehabilitation, skilled nursing home care, custodial nursing home care, home-based skilled nurse and therapist care, and home-based custodial care.
They found correlations between several personality traits and health care service utilization. People who scored high in neuroticism were 24 percent more likely to visit the ED and more than twice as likely to spend time in a nursing home for long term care as individuals low in neuroticism. Among users of care, those with lower openness scores were admitted more frequently to EDs (16 percent) and spent more days in nursing homes that provide long term care (30 percent).
The researchers believe that these findings could potentially be used to help lower health care costs – one of the central objectives of the Affordable Care Act – based on an assessment of individuals' personality profiles. Health care providers could develop forecasts of the overuse and underuse of health care services by personality trait and then use interventions to, for example, prevent unnecessary ED visits among patients who are high in neuroticism.
"These finding have a range of potential implications in terms of how clinicians and health systems deliver patient-centered care," said Friedman. "Customizing interventions to a person's personality profile could be one of the keys to ensuring the appropriate use of health services and containing the continuing rise in health care costs."
Explore further: Consumer satisfaction an indicator of quality of care in nursing homes
Medical Xpress on facebook
Related Stories
Consumer satisfaction an indicator of quality of care in nursing homes
Aug 05, 2013
Consumer satisfaction surveys of nursing home residents and their families track closely with other quality of care measures. These results, which were published today in the journal Health Affairs, indicate that the survey ...
In California, adults with Medicaid coverage have highest increase in emergency department visits
Sep 17, 2013
"Emergency department (ED) use has been affected by insurance patterns over time and will likely be further affected by expansions of coverage from health care reform." Uninsured patients are often thought of as high and ...
Study links personality changes to changes in social well-being
Dec 19, 2012
(Medical Xpress)—Researchers report that changes in social well-being are closely tied to one's personality, with positive changes in one corresponding to similar changes in the other. Their study reveals ...
Caregiver personality traits can affect health
Feb 14, 2012
(Medical Xpress) -- Taking care of an aging or disabled loved one can be hazardous to your health. But certain personality traits appear to reduce caregivers' risk for health problems, reports a new Cornell study.
Study finds poor blacks likely to get worse nursing home care
Sep 03, 2013
If you're poor and aging in America, the golden years may not be pretty, especially if you are black.
Recommended for you
Higher calorie diets increase weight gain, shorten hospital stays for teens with anorexia
26 minutes ago
Higher calorie diets produce twice the rate of weight gain compared to the lower calorie diets that currently are recommended for adolescents hospitalized with anorexia nervosa, according to a study by researchers at UCSF ...
The higher the better? Intensity of training in CHD patients important to improve fitness
35 minutes ago
High-intensity exercise is shown to be protective against coronary heart disease (CHD) and is well known as a popular and time-saving approach to getting fit. But what about people who already have heart disease? Previously, ...
Being near a liquor store or tavern in Chicago hikes odds of gunshot wound
4 hours ago
A person near a liquor store or tavern on the West Side or South Side of Chicago is up to 500 times more likely to be shot than others in these neighborhoods.
Can't sleep? Quit smoking
4 hours ago
As the NHS prepares to launch Stoptober 2013, new research published in Psychology, Health & Medicine has found another reason to quit smoking - giving up smoking improves sleep. Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death ...
Britain to ban smoking in prisons (Update)
7 hours ago
Britain said Friday it was looking at banning smoking in prisons, despite fears of a backlash from prisoners who claim a cigarette is one of the few joys of life behind bars.
S.African grannies rush for condoms for arthritis: report
7 hours ago
The elderly in South Africa are discarding pills for boxes of condoms in the belief that the lubricant oil on the latex helps alleviate arthritis-related pain, a daily reported Friday.
User comments
© Medical Xpress 2011-2013, Phys.org network
Psychiatrists and psychologists have long understood that an individual's personality can define how he or she views the world around them, reacts to situations, and interacts with others. It now appears that personality traits can be linked to the frequency with which older adults use expensive health care services.
A study, published today in the journal The Milbank Quarterly, finds that certain measurable personality characteristics can be correlated to health care consumption, in some instances increasing use high cost health care services such as emergency room visits and nursing home stays by 20 to 30 percent and even higher.
"This is the first study to show that personality traits predispose some older adults to use several expensive acute and long-term care services," said Bruce Friedman, M.P.H., Ph.D., an associate professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Public Health Sciences and lead author of the study. "It is important for health care systems to recognize that personality characteristics are associated with how individuals use health care services, and design interventions that redirect patients towards lower cost solutions to their health problems that are just as effective."
The study was based on data collected from 1,074 individuals over the age of 65 who participated in study funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The study, called the Medicare Primary and Consumer-Directed Care Demonstration, involved participants from upstate New York, West Virginia, and Ohio who were deemed likely to be high cost patients.
Participants completed a questionnaire which assigns a score for each of the "big five" personality traits: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. The survey, called the NEO-FFI, asks individuals to respond to questions about their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, such as whether they are easy to laugh, are courteous to others, get into arguments easily, feel inferior, or like to be around other people.
The survey results enable researchers to understand each individual's personality profile and how these traits may impact their health care decisions. For example, people on the high end of the neuroticism scale tend to be more likely to feel angry, anxious, depressed, or vulnerable. An individual with a high score in openness to experience is generally more intellectually curious, imaginative, and creative. People who are high in agreeableness are compassionate, altruistic, and cooperative. Those who score low tend to be suspicious or antagonistic. People who score on the high end of the conscientiousness scale are dependable, reliable, and goal-oriented.
The researchers then looked at which health care services these individuals utilized over a two year period. This information was recorded in daily logs kept by the study participants. The study focuses on seven high cost health care services: emergency department (ED) visits, hospital stays, hospital-based rehabilitation, skilled nursing home care, custodial nursing home care, home-based skilled nurse and therapist care, and home-based custodial care.
They found correlations between several personality traits and health care service utilization. People who scored high in neuroticism were 24 percent more likely to visit the ED and more than twice as likely to spend time in a nursing home for long term care as individuals low in neuroticism. Among users of care, those with lower openness scores were admitted more frequently to EDs (16 percent) and spent more days in nursing homes that provide long term care (30 percent).
The researchers believe that these findings could potentially be used to help lower health care costs – one of the central objectives of the Affordable Care Act – based on an assessment of individuals' personality profiles. Health care providers could develop forecasts of the overuse and underuse of health care services by personality trait and then use interventions to, for example, prevent unnecessary ED visits among patients who are high in neuroticism.
"These finding have a range of potential implications in terms of how clinicians and health systems deliver patient-centered care," said Friedman. "Customizing interventions to a person's personality profile could be one of the keys to ensuring the appropriate use of health services and containing the continuing rise in health care costs."
Explore further: Consumer satisfaction an indicator of quality of care in nursing homes
Medical Xpress on facebook
Related Stories
Consumer satisfaction an indicator of quality of care in nursing homes
Aug 05, 2013
Consumer satisfaction surveys of nursing home residents and their families track closely with other quality of care measures. These results, which were published today in the journal Health Affairs, indicate that the survey ...
In California, adults with Medicaid coverage have highest increase in emergency department visits
Sep 17, 2013
"Emergency department (ED) use has been affected by insurance patterns over time and will likely be further affected by expansions of coverage from health care reform." Uninsured patients are often thought of as high and ...
Study links personality changes to changes in social well-being
Dec 19, 2012
(Medical Xpress)—Researchers report that changes in social well-being are closely tied to one's personality, with positive changes in one corresponding to similar changes in the other. Their study reveals ...
Caregiver personality traits can affect health
Feb 14, 2012
(Medical Xpress) -- Taking care of an aging or disabled loved one can be hazardous to your health. But certain personality traits appear to reduce caregivers' risk for health problems, reports a new Cornell study.
Study finds poor blacks likely to get worse nursing home care
Sep 03, 2013
If you're poor and aging in America, the golden years may not be pretty, especially if you are black.
Recommended for you
Higher calorie diets increase weight gain, shorten hospital stays for teens with anorexia
26 minutes ago
Higher calorie diets produce twice the rate of weight gain compared to the lower calorie diets that currently are recommended for adolescents hospitalized with anorexia nervosa, according to a study by researchers at UCSF ...
The higher the better? Intensity of training in CHD patients important to improve fitness
35 minutes ago
High-intensity exercise is shown to be protective against coronary heart disease (CHD) and is well known as a popular and time-saving approach to getting fit. But what about people who already have heart disease? Previously, ...
Being near a liquor store or tavern in Chicago hikes odds of gunshot wound
4 hours ago
A person near a liquor store or tavern on the West Side or South Side of Chicago is up to 500 times more likely to be shot than others in these neighborhoods.
Can't sleep? Quit smoking
4 hours ago
As the NHS prepares to launch Stoptober 2013, new research published in Psychology, Health & Medicine has found another reason to quit smoking - giving up smoking improves sleep. Smoking is a leading cause of preventable death ...
Britain to ban smoking in prisons (Update)
7 hours ago
Britain said Friday it was looking at banning smoking in prisons, despite fears of a backlash from prisoners who claim a cigarette is one of the few joys of life behind bars.
S.African grannies rush for condoms for arthritis: report
7 hours ago
The elderly in South Africa are discarding pills for boxes of condoms in the belief that the lubricant oil on the latex helps alleviate arthritis-related pain, a daily reported Friday.
User comments
© Medical Xpress 2011-2013, Phys.org network
0 comments:
Post a Comment