ویژگی‌های شخصیت و استرس در بیماران مبتلا به زخم معده و افراد سالم: مطالعه‌ای مقایسه‌ای با نگاه به تفاوت‌های جنسیتی

 Background and Objective: Personality is a principal factor in present relationship between stress and health. Thus, it is not far from expectations that psychosomatic diseases are affected by personality characteristics and coping style with life stressor events. The aim of the present research was a comparison between personality characteristic and stress in patients with peptic ulcer disease (PUD) and healthy individuals, considering their sex differences.   Materials and Methods: This research was a matched case-control study in which 60 patients, referring to 8 personal clinics with a diagnosis or a history of peptic ulcer based on the viewpoint of a therapeutic physician were compared with 60 healthy individuals as the control group, regarding personality characteristics and the level of experienced stress. Males and females had the same number in both groups (30 males and 30 females). Research tools included Holmes and Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale to measure the level of daily life stressors and NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) to evaluate 5 personality factors of Neuroticism (N), Extroversion (E), Openness (O), Agreeableness (A), and Conscientiousness(C). The research data were analyzed by SPSS (Version 16.0) and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and regression (by enter method) tests.    Results: The level of stress in patients with PUD was higher than that of control group. Considering the personality characteristics, the patient's group had remarkably higher scores in (N), (E), and (O) and in this circumstance had significant role the interactional effect of gender with disease on levels of stress (p<0.05). Regression analysis revealed that only personality characteristic of Neuroticism (N) significantly predicted the experienced stress (F=12.206 p<0.01).   Conclusion: Altogether, it is concluded that reducing the stress sources to the least possible level in PUD patients seems necessary. Moreover, targeting the characteristic of Neuroticism (N) is a key factor. From the personality perspective, women with excessive level of openness (O) are at risk of PUD.