AUTHOR=Tokarek Julita , Kapuścik Angelika , Kućmierz Joanna , Kowalczyk Edward , Karbownik Michał Seweryn 

TITLE=Personality traits and health-related behaviors in medical students facing a stressful event

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1256883

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2023.1256883

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=1) Background: It is believed that personality traits have an impact on the propensity to change and maintain favorable lifestyle habits. This issue has been raised by multiple studies, however, none of them appeared to focus on population under severe psychological stress. The aim of the present study was to investigate the link between personality traits and health-related behaviors such as dietary intake of specific food products, physical activity, body-mass index and the use of cigarettes in medical students facing a stressful event.(2) Methods: The study included a cohort of third-year medical students from the Medical University of Lodz, Poland, facing a stressful subject exam during the first COVID-19-related lockdown. At baseline, personality traits were evaluated with the use of the Polish version of the Big Five Inventory-Short questionnaire. Then, consumption of selected food products was monitored with the use of seven-day electronic dietary record. Also, some other healthrelated data was collected (body-mass index, physical activity and the use of cigarettes). General Linear Modeling techniques, logistic regression and exploratory factor analysis were applied to analyze the data. (3) Results: 444 students completed the study. A two-factor pattern of food consumption was discovered by the exploratory factor analysis in the study group (34% of the variance explained). Higher conscientiousness, but not the other personality traits, was found to be significantly associated with generally healthier lifestyle manifested by higher consumption of vegetables, wholegrain products, fruits and nuts (adjusted beta 0.16, 95%CI 0.06 to 0.26, pη 2 =2.3%, p=0.0015) and lower cigarette smoking (adjusted odds ratio 0.84, 95%CI 0.75 to 0.94, p=0.0020), but insignificantly with physical activity and body-mass index. (4) Conclusions: Severely stressed medical students expressing high conscientiousness tend to present healthier behaviors. Therefore, interventions aimed at improving lifestyle habits in students with low conscientiousness might be useful.The study obtained the approval of the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Lodz, Poland (RNN/111/20/KE, received on April 2, 2020). All the participants gave their informed consent in an electronic manner. The study partially represents a secondary analysis of already published results [14,15], however, it also includes new data.