Volume 4 • Issue 4 • 1000291 J Nutr Food Sci ISSN: 2155-9600 JNFS, an open access journal Open Access Research Article Nutrition and Food Sciences Pereira et al., J Nutr Food Sci 2014, 4:4 http://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2155-9600.1000291 *Corresponding author: Henrique Pereira, Department of Psychology and Education, University of Beira Interior & Unidade de Investigação em Psicologia e Saúde (UIPES/ISPA), Portugal, Tel: 275 329 161; E-mail: hpereira@ubi.pt Received June 17, 2014; Accepted June 17, 2014; Published June 21, 2014 Citation: Pereira H, Tomaz C, Cavaco J, Tavares-Ratado P (2014) Personality and Levels of Cholesterol and Glucose. J Nutr Food Sci 4: 291. doi: 10.4172/2155- 9600.1000291 Copyright: © 2014 Pereira H, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Personality and Levels of Cholesterol and Glucose Henrique Pereira 1 *, Cândida Tomaz 2 , José Cavaco 3 and Paulo Tavares-Ratado 4 1 Department of Psychology and Education, University of Beira Interior & Unidade de Investigação em Psicologia e Saúde (UIPES/ISPA), Portugal 2 Centro de Investigação das Ciências da Saúde (CICS), University of Beira Interior, Portugal 3 Department of Medical Sciences, University of Beira Interior& Centro de Investigação das Ciências da Saúde (CICS), Portugal 4 Clinical Pathology Laboratory, Sousa Martins Hospital & Centro de Investigação das Ciências da Saúde (CICS), University of Beira Interior, Portugal Abstract This research aims to investigate the relationship between personality traits according to the Big-Five model and the levels of cholesterol and glucose. A convenience sample of 52 individuals participated in this study (mean age was 25 years old; SD=7,8 years of age); 59,6% were women (40,4% were men). The Neo Reviewed Personality Inventory (Portuguese version) was used to measure personality according to the Big-Five Personality Model: Openness (O), Conscientiousness (C), Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A), and Neuroticism (N). Regarding the serum determinations, the following parameters were quantified: Total Cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Triglycerides and Glucose. Results show that there is a negative correlation between Extroversion and total levels of cholesterol, as well as LDL; a negative correlation between Neuroticism and LDL and Glucose; and, finally a positive correlation between Conscientiousness and glucose levels. This study is a contribution for further research, and our aim is to develop other topics of investigation, expanding it into the psychoneuroimmunological implications present in the mechanisms that mediate the relation between psychological and physical variables, namely between the personality and levels of cholesterol and glucose. Keywords: Personality; Cholesterol; Glucose Introduction Some psychological variables have been studied to be associated to the occurrence of physical illnesses, particularly stress, mainly due to its effect on the contribution for the decrease of immunological response because of its interference with corticoid production [1-3]. On the other hand, there is no significant reference in the literature of relevant associations between personality and cholesterol and glucose parameters, even though some studies show that there is a relation between these two aspects and other psychological variables such as: suicide [4-8]; hyperactive behavior [9]; impulsivity [10]; violent crime [11]; bulimia nervosa [12], or borderline personality disorder [13]. erefore, this research aims to investigate the possible relationship between personality traits according to the Big-Five model and the levels of cholesterol and glucose. Methods Sample A convenience sample of 52 individuals participated in this study. Students, professors and employees from the University of Beira Interior were recruited, and their mean age was 25 years old (SD=7,8 years of age); 59,6% were women (40,4% were men). At the moment of the sampling, all participants had a normative body mass index, were not taking any medication, did not smoke, did not drink alcohol, and did not have any chronic disease. Also, for women, it was assured that they were not taking the birth control pill. All these criteria were controlled in order to eliminate other factors that might change the levels of cholesterol and glucose. Materials For this study the Neo Reviewed Personality Inventory (Portuguese version) was utilized. is instrument was validated for the Portuguese population and is made of 240 self-response items. It has five different scales for each domain of the Big-Five Personality Model: Openness (O), Conscientiousness (C), Extraversion (E), Agreeableness (A), and Neuroticism (N). Regarding the serum determinations, the following parameters were quantified: Total Cholesterol, Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL), Triglycerides and Glucose. Procedures All participants signed the informed consent regarding their participation in the study and were scheduled for blood sampling aſter twelve hours of fast. Immediately aſter, the participants were given the personality inventory to be filled out. e blood sample was then centrifuged and the serum was frozen for posterior analysis in the laboratory. Results From the submission of the five factors of personality scores to the correlational analysis with the levels of Cholesterol, and glucose, LDL, HDL and Triglycerides, the following results were obtained (p<0,05): A negative correlation between Extroversion and total levels of Cholesterol (r=-0,278; p=0.046), as shown in Figure 1, which suggests that individuals who are not extroverted present higher levels of total cholesterol. Also, a negative correlation between Conscientiousness and levels