Dimensions of health-related dispositions in elderly people: Relationships with health behaviour and personality traits

The principal aim of this study was to examine a health-related disposition construct in elderly Italians by explorative factor analysis of the Multidimensional Health Questionnaire. The questionnaire had a two-factor structure. The first factor was loaded by cognitive variables such as Health-Efficacy, Health Control, Optimism, etc.; it predicted compliance with self-rating health seeking behaviours and it was correlated with personality traits such as Emotional Stability and the Lie scale. The second factor comprised emotional dispositions including Health Anxiety, Health Depression, Health Preoccupation, etc. and it was negatively associated with Conscientiousness and Energy. Interesting results emerged for sex by age differences in both health factors. Moreover, men and women showed different correlation patterns between the health factors and the Five Factor Model. Copyright (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.