Research Article Personality and Perceived Health in Spousal Caregivers of Patients with Lung Cancer: The Roles of Neuroticism and Extraversion Michael Hoerger, 1 Maria Coletta, 2 Silvia Sörensen, 3 Benjamin P. Chapman, 3 Kim Kaukeinen, 4 Xin Tu, 4 and Paul R. Duberstein 3 1 Departments of Psychology, Psychiatry, and Medicine, Tulane Cancer Center, 3070 Stern Hall, New Orleans, LA 70118, USA 2 Main Line Health, Newtown Square, PA 19073, USA 3 Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14642, USA 4 Department of Biostatistics, University of Rochester Medical Center, 300 Crittenden Boulevard, Rochester, NY 14642, USA Correspondence should be addressed to Michael Hoerger; mhoerger@tulane.edu Received 16 January 2016; Revised 17 March 2016; Accepted 23 March 2016 Academic Editor: Elke Bromberg Copyright © 2016 Michael Hoerger et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Purpose. Family members’ responsibilities for patients with cancer have increased dramatically over the past decade and will likely continue to rise. Given that caregiving is associated with declines in self-care, there is a need for research on caregivers’ perceptions of their own health. Te purpose of this study was to examine whether personality is associated with four self-report perceived health items from the SF-36. Methods. Te sample consisted of 114 spouses of lung cancer patients who completed cross-sectional measures as part of a larger cohort study on adjustment to the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. Predictors of interest were Neuroticism and Extraversion scores from the NEO-FFI. Covariates were age, gender, conscientiousness, depressive symptoms, and objective illness burden. Results. Multivariate analyses revealed that caregivers with higher Extraversion scores were less likely to respond afrmatively to the item “I expect my health to get worse” (OR = 0.90,  < 0.05). Neuroticism was associated with poorer perceived health (ORs from 1.11 to 1.12, ’s < 0.05). Conclusions. Te present cross-sectional fndings suggest that personality is associated with responses to SF-36 perceived health items beyond what can be accounted for by objective illness burden and other covariates. Te potential overestimation of health among extraverted caregivers may have implications for their health outcomes. 1. Introduction Family members’ caregiving responsibilities for patients with cancer have increased dramatically over the past decade and will likely continue to rise as care is now routinely admin- istered on an outpatient basis and patients are living longer [1]. Understanding the psychological factors that contribute to morbidity among these “hidden patients” [2] may help improve the clinical assessment process and mitigate some of the adverse consequences of caregiving. Perceived health is an important predictor of morbidity and mortality across various cultural contexts [3–7]. Subjec- tive rating scales are ofen used to assess perceived health and are straightforward and quick to administer in busy clinical settings. Given the widespread use of these rating scales and their constituent items, it is important to identify infuences on responses. In this study, we sought to examine whether personality is associated with perceived health in spouses of patients with lung cancer. Although the term “caregiving” was initially used to refer to the provision of dementia care by family members, it is applicable to cancer care as well. Family members are not merely bystanders in treatment but also actual or potential cousers of services [8–10]. Family caregivers fre- quently accompany the patient to appointments, administer medications, and provide other critical day-to-day functions. For patients with lung cancer, where the 5-year survival rate is only 17% [11], spouses ofen provide in-home care. Rec- ognizing that many caregivers derive psychological beneft Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Aging Research Volume 2016, Article ID 5659793, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2016/5659793