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. 2011 Jun;26(2):351-62.
doi: 10.1037/a0021377.

Personality and risk for Alzheimer's disease in adults 72 years of age and older: a 6-year follow-up

Paul R Duberstein  1 , Benjamin P Chapman, Hilary A Tindle, Kaycee M Sink, Patricia Bamonti, John Robbins, Anthony F Jerant, Peter Franks
Affiliations

Personality and risk for Alzheimer's disease in adults 72 years of age and older: a 6-year follow-up

Paul R Duberstein et al. Psychol Aging. 2011 Jun.

Erratum in

  • Psychol Aging. 2011 Jun;26(2):338

Abstract

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 26(2) of Psychology and Aging (see record 2011-05802-001). This article contains an error in the Discussion, under the Implications, Caveats, Future Directions heading. The third paragraph includes the sentences that should have been removed. The corrected paragraph appears in the correction.] We conducted secondary analyses to determine the relationship between longstanding personality traits and risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD) among 767 participants 72 years of age or older who were followed for more than 6 years. Personality was assessed with the NEO-FFI. We hypothesized that elevated Neuroticism, lower Openness, and lower Conscientiousness would be independently associated with risk of AD. Hypotheses were supported. The finding that AD risk is associated with elevated Neuroticism and lower Conscientiousness can be added to the accumulating literature documenting the pathogenic effects of these two traits. The link between lower Openness and AD risk is consistent with recent findings on cognitive activity and AD risk. Findings have implications for prevention research and for the conceptualization of the etiology of AD.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Kaplan-Meier probability of developing AD over the study duration. High risk: Scored above mean on Neuroticism and below mean on Openness and Conscientiousness. Low risk: Scored below mean on Neuroticism and above mean on Openness and Conscientiousness. Average risk: the remainder of the sample. Participants in the high risk group accumulated an AD risk of greater than 50% by the end of the study.
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