Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Dec;33(4):197-208.
doi: 10.1024/1662-9647/a000241. Epub 2020 Jul 8.

Personality and Dementia Risk in England and Australia

Damaris Aschwanden  1 , Angelina R Sutin  1 , Martina Luchetti  1 , Yannick Stephan  2 , Antonio Terracciano  1
Affiliations

Personality and Dementia Risk in England and Australia

Damaris Aschwanden et al. GeroPsych (Bern). 2020 Dec.

Abstract

Evidence for the relation between personality and dementia risk comes mainly from American samples. We tested whether personality-dementia links extend to populations from England and Australia. Data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA; N = 6,887; Follow-up mean: 5.64 years) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA; N = 2,778; Follow-up mean: 10.96 years) were analyzed using Cox PH models. In both samples, higher neuroticism was associated with increased dementia risk. In ELSA, lower conscientiousness was related to increased risk. In HILDA, conscientiousness had a similar effect but did not reach statistical significance. The present work found a consistent association for neuroticism and suggests similar personality-dementia links across demographic groups and high-income countries.

Keywords: Australia; England; conscientiousness; culture; dementia; neuroticism; personality traits.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Aichele S, & Ghisletta P (2019). Memory deficits precede increases in depressive symptoms in later adulthood. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 74(6), 943–953. 10.1093/geronb/gbx183 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Allemand M, Zimprich D, & Martin M (2008). Long-term correlated change in personality traits in old age. Psychology and Aging, 23(3), 545–557. 10.1037/a0013239 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Amjad H, Roth DL, Sheehan OC, Lyketsos CG, Wolff JL, & Samus QM (2018). Underdiagnosis of dementia: An observational study of patterns in diagnosis and awareness in US older adults. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 33(7), 1131–1138. 10.1007/s11606-018-4377-y - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Anstey KJ, Ee N, Eramudugolla R, Jagger C, & Peters R (2019). A systematic review of meta-analyses that evaluate risk factors for dementia to evaluate the quantity, quality, and global representativeness of evidence. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 70(s1), S165–S186. 10.3233/JAD-190181 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Barnes DE, & Yaffe K (2011). The projected effect of risk factor reduction on Alzheimer’s disease prevalence. The Lancet Neurology, 10(9), 819–828. 10.1016/S1474-4422(11)70072-2 - DOI - PMC - PubMed