Neuroticism, extraversion, anxiety and type a behaviour as mediators of neck, shoulder and lower back pain in female hospital staff

Abstract Five hundred and eighty-six female hospital staff participated in a study on the associations between personality traits and musculoskeletal pain from the neck, shoulders and lower back. Personality traits were assessed by the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), sub-scales Neuroticism (EPQ-N) and Extraversion (EPQ-E), the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Revised Jenkins Activity Scale (RJAS), sub-scales Achievement Striving (RJAS-A) and Irritability/Impatience (RJAS-I). Back pain was assessed by self-report. Statistical analyses were done for the whole sample of subjects and for eight sub-samples reflecting variations in occupational demand characteristics. Results showed moderate, though highly significant correlations between (1) EPQ-N, STAI, RJAS-A, RJAS-I and (2) back pain for the whole sample of subjects. There was a general trend for neck and shoulder pain to be more closely related to these personality traits than was lower back pain. For the whole sample of subjects the highest coefficient was computed for the correlation between EPQ-N and neck pain. However, the magnitude of correlations between the specific personality traits and back pain varied markedly between sub-samples of subjects. Our main conclusion from the present study is that neuroticism, trait anxiety and Type A behaviour mediate back pain, especially neck and shoulder pain, but that the mediating effects of the personality traits are influenced by occupational demand characteristics (emotional vs physical load).

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