Statistically modelling the relationships between Type D personality and social support, health behaviors and symptom severity in chronic illness groups. — CFSMEATLAS
E2 ModerateModerate confidencePEM not requiredCross-SectionalPeer-reviewedMachine draft
Standard · 3 min
Statistically modelling the relationships between Type D personality and social support, health behaviors and symptom severity in chronic illness groups.
Horwood, Sharon, Anglim, Jeromy, Tooley, Greg · Psychology & health · 2016 · DOI
Quick Summary
This study looked at whether certain personality traits (called Type D personality, which involves being prone to worry and keeping emotions to yourself) are more common in people with chronic illnesses like ME/CFS and fibromyalgia, and whether these traits affect health behaviors, social support, and symptom severity. Researchers surveyed 182 healthy people and 207 people with various chronic illnesses, and found that Type D personality was more common in the chronic illness groups. The study suggests that personality traits may influence how symptoms develop and how well people manage their conditions across different chronic diseases.
Why It Matters
Understanding whether personality traits like Type D influence ME/CFS symptom severity, health behaviors, and social isolation could help clinicians identify patients at higher risk for poor outcomes and inform psychosocial interventions. The study's finding that personality factors relate similarly across ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and other chronic illnesses may validate psychological support as a common therapeutic element across diverse chronic conditions. This work highlights non-biomedical factors that may complement biomedical research in understanding disease burden.
Observed Findings
Type D personality was present in 53% of chronic illness participants compared to 39% of healthy controls.
Negative affectivity (worry, pessimism) was a stronger predictor of health outcomes than social inhibition (tendency to suppress emotions).
Both negative affectivity and social inhibition independently correlated with health behaviors, social support, and symptom severity.
Modeling negative affectivity and social inhibition as separate continuous variables predicted health outcomes better than treating Type D as a categorical diagnosis.
The pattern of associations between personality factors and health outcomes appeared consistent across ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and medically-explained chronic illnesses.
Inferred Conclusions
Type D personality and its component traits (particularly negative affectivity) are associated with worse health outcomes across diverse chronic illnesses including ME/CFS.
The relationship between personality traits and health outcomes may generalize across different chronic disease mechanisms (functional somatic syndromes versus conditions with established pathology).
Negative affectivity warrants clinical attention as a modifiable factor in chronic illness management.
Remaining Questions
Does Type D personality precede chronic illness development, or does chronic illness lead to increased negative affectivity and social inhibition?
What This Study Does Not Prove
This study does not establish that Type D personality causes ME/CFS symptoms or poor health outcomes—the cross-sectional design can only show correlations. It does not prove that psychological traits are the primary drivers of disease pathology; personality traits could be a response to chronic illness rather than a cause. The study also does not determine whether personality-targeted interventions would improve ME/CFS outcomes.
Tags
Symptom:PainFatigue
Method Flag:PEM Not DefinedWeak Case DefinitionMixed Cohort
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
Could personality-targeted interventions (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy, mindfulness) improve symptom severity and health behaviors in ME/CFS specifically?
Are the mechanisms linking negative affectivity to worse outcomes the same across ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and medically-explained chronic illnesses, or disease-specific?
Which health behaviors mediate the relationship between negative affectivity and symptom severity in ME/CFS?