US researchers say personality is as important as family medical history and smoking habits in determining future health, says a [s]Daily Mail[/s] report. Their research, in the [b]Journal of Personality and Social Psychology[/b] showed people who are conscientious when they are 26 are in much better health at 38 than those who are not conscientious in their 20s. Individuals low in conscientiousness were more often overweight, had high cholesterol, inflammation, hypertension and greater rates of gum disease. And conscientious people are more likely to have active lifestyles, maintain healthy diets and have more self-control, so are less likely to smoke or abuse alcohol and drugs, the study noted. This could explain the relationship between the character trait and better health, the researchers said. [b]Dr Salomon Israel, from Duke University[/b], said: ‘Our findings suggest that in addition to considering “what” a patient has among risks for chronic age-related diseases, physicians can benefit from knowing “who” the patient is in terms of personality in order to design effective preventive health care.’
[link url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2579262/Sensible-people-really-DO-live-longer-Personality-important-family-history-comes-health-study-finds.html]Full Daily Mail report[/link]
[link url=http://www.moffittcaspi.com/sites/moffittcaspi.com/files/field/publication_uploads/Israel_2014_JPSP.pdf]Full JPSP study[/link]