Five factor model personality factors moderated the effects of an intervention to enhance chronic disease management self‐efficacy

OBJECTIVES: Peer led interventions can enhance patient self-efficacy for managing chronic illnesses, but little is known regarding the moderators or duration of their effects. We hypothesized Homing in on Health (HIOH), a variant of the Chronic Disease Self-Management Program, would be most effective in patients high in neuroticism and low in extraversion, openness, agreeableness, and/or conscientiousness. DESIGN: Analysis of data from subjects (N=415) enrolled in an ongoing randomized controlled trial. METHODS: Regression analyses were conducted to explore whether Five Factor Model (FFM) personality factors moderated the effects of HIOH, delivered in subjects' homes or via telephone, on disease management self-efficacy. Data were collected at 6 time points over the course of 1 year. RESULTS: Compared with control and telephone HIOH, home HIOH significantly increased self-efficacy, an effect peaking at 6 weeks and fully attenuating by 1 year. Moderation analyses revealed the benefit was confined to patients higher in neuroticism and/or lower in conscientiousness, agreeableness, and extraversion. CONCLUSIONS: A peer led intervention to enhance disease management self-efficacy had only short-term effects, and FFM personality factors moderated those effects. Measuring personality factors in chronically ill individuals may facilitate targeting of self-management interventions to those most likely to respond.