Association of Personality Traits with Treatment Adherence in Vitiligo

Background: vitiligo is an acquired, auto-immune chronic skin disorder with different treatment modalities. insufficient adherence to treatment is closely related to the efficacy of a prescribed treatment, and also, there are some associations between adherence behaviour and personality. therefore, the study aimed to assess a relationship between five-factor personality traits and treatment adherence in patients with vitiligo. methods: in this cross-sectional study, patients with vitiligo who received ultraviolet b (uvb) phototherapy were recruited. the morisky medication adherence scale (mmas-8) assessed treatment adherence, and personality factors were evaluated by neo five-factor personality inventory (neo-ffi). data were analysed using t-tests, correlations, and multiple regression. results: among 70 participants, 62.9% had low adherence, 24.3% had medium adherence, and 12.9 % had high adherence. there was a positive correlation between neuroticism (p<0.001) and adherence score. furthermore, a negative correlation between agreeableness (p=0.13), conscientiousness (p<0.001), openness to experiences (p=005), extraversion (p<0.001), and adherence score was obtained. in the regression analysis method, only the factors of neuroticism (p<0.001) and openness ( p=0.001), and conscientiousness ( p=0.016) predicted the dependent variable (adherence score) at the significance level. conclusion: this study demonstrated that openness to experience and conscientiousness positively affected adherence, while neuroticism negatively affected adherence. considering these personality factors can effectively screen poor adherence and improve treatment adherence.