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Personality and Dementia Risk in England and Australia
Damaris Aschwanden1, Angelina R Sutin1, Martina Luchetti1
1Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA.
Geropsych
|July 30, 2021
Summary
Higher neuroticism increases dementia risk, while conscientiousness may also play a role. This study confirms personality-dementia links in English and Australian populations, extending previous findings.
Area of Science:
- Gerontology
- Psychology
- Epidemiology
Background:
- Personality traits are increasingly recognized as potential risk factors for dementia.
- Most prior research on personality and dementia risk has utilized American population samples.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the generalizability of personality-dementia associations in non-American, high-income countries.
- To examine the relationship between specific personality traits and dementia risk in English and Australian cohorts.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of longitudinal data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey.
- Utilized Cox proportional hazards (PH) models to assess dementia risk associated with personality traits.
Main Results:
- Consistent association found between higher neuroticism and increased dementia risk in both ELSA and HILDA samples.
- Lower conscientiousness was linked to higher dementia risk in the ELSA sample, with a similar trend observed in the HILDA sample.
Conclusions:
- Personality-dementia links, particularly the association with neuroticism, appear consistent across diverse high-income populations.
- Findings suggest that personality traits may be valuable indicators for dementia risk assessment in international contexts.
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