Having an "anxious personality" may increase the risk of being bitten by a dog, either a strange dog or one in the home, new research suggests.
In an observational survey study of almost 700 individuals in the United Kingdom, those who had higher scores on the Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI), which measures emotional stability, were at a significantly lower risk of having ever received a bite than those with lower scores, which signify greater levels of anxiety, irritability, and depression.
In fact, "every single point increase in score between 1 and 7 was associated with a 23% decrease in the likelihood of having been bitten," the investigators note in a press release.
Previous research has shown that most bites come from dogs that are familiar; 55% of the bites in this study came from unfamiliar dogs.
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