relationship between personality traits and physical - social anxiety in obese women who are applying for bariatric surgery: a cross-sectional study

Background: obesity is a multifactorial disease defined by excessive adiposity, posing a health risk by increasing the risk of noncommunicable diseases. we aimed to investigate the relationship between personality traits and physical-social anxiety in overweight women seeking bariatric surgery.methods: an applied and descriptive-correlational design was used in this cross-sectional study. the participants were overweight women who had applied for bariatric surgery and went to the hospital; a total of 110 people were selected through convenience sampling. the participants completed questionnaires on demographic characteristics, personality (neuroticism-extroversion-openness [neo] personality inventory), and physical-social features. data were analyzed using spss software via regression and correlation analysis at a significance level of p<0.05.results: we found a positive relationship between neuroticism and physical-social anxiety (p≤0.01). conversely, extraversion, agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness exhibited negative associations with physical-social anxiety (p≤0.01).conclusion: our study indicates that neuroticism is a positive and significant predictor of physical-social anxiety, while extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness are negative predictors of physical stress. these findings highlight the importance of considering personality traits in understanding the physical-social anxiety of overweight women seeking bariatric surgery.