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Big Five Personality Factors, Obesity And 2-Year Weight Gain In Australian Adults, Christopher A. Magee, Patrick C. L Heaven

Faculty of Health and Behavioural Sciences - Papers (Archive)

The objective of this paper was to examine whether the Big-Five Personality factors were associated with obesity and 2-year weight gain in Australian adults. The sample included 5265 Australian adults aged 25– 65 years. Binary logistic regression models indicated that Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism were cross-sectionally associated with obesity, with Conscientiousness inversely associated with obesity. The longitudinal analyses indicated that Extraversion predicted 2-year weight gain. The relationships between personality and obesity/weight gain were not moderated by age or sex. These results have potentially important implications for developing more effective treatment and prevention strategies for obesity.