Persnality and Risk for Alzheimer's Disease in Adults 72 Years of Age and Older: A 6-Year Follow-Up

Personality and Risk for Alzheimer’s disease in Adults 72 Years of Age and Older: A 6-Year Follow-Up. Duberstein, Paul R.; Chapman, Benjamin P.; Tindle, Hilary A.; Sink, Kaycee M.; Bamont, Patricia; Robbins, John; Jerant, Anthony F.; Franks, Peter. Psychology and Aging, Vol 26 (2), Jun 2011, 351-362. Doi: 10.1037/a0021377

            Alzheimer’s disease is a neurological disease with staggering societal costs. Patients suffer and families are burdened. The disease can emerge in mid-life and grow exponentially as a person ages. Research into defining a phenotype of those who are at risk could lead to insights of disease etiology that could shape the design of preventative measures.

            It is already shown that education and lifestyle play a role in who develops Alzheimer’s. This study examines the big five personality traits and their relation to developing Alzheimer’s disease. These are neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. These traits are generally stable across the adult lifespan and are believed to have biological roots.

            Some people, due to their underlying personality traits, may be more likely to select themselves into environments that provide greater opportunity for healthful behavior or cognitive stimulation.  Maintaining cognitive efficiency as one ages is important to coping with Alzheimer’s or maybe even possibly avoiding it.

            The researchers hypothesized that neuroticism would be high in those with Alzheimer’s. Neuroticism is the tendency to experience stress and anxiety, along with difficulty managing stress and controlling impulses. Hippocampal atrophy can be caused by chronic stress. This could lead to an increased risk of Alzheimer’s.

The researchers hypothesized that a low score in openness to experience would correlate with Alzheimer’s. Research shows that people who score high in openness to experience are interested in the pursuit of novelty, ideas, art, fantasy, emotions, sensations, etc. They are usually cognitively flexible, of high intelligence, and have higher education. These lifelong patterns of high-cognitive functioning may lead to the lessening of the risk of dementia.

It was also hypothesized that conscientiousness would be lower in those who developed Alzheimer’s. Conscientiousness is the capacity to plan ahead, delay gratification, work towards goals, be dependable, etc. Conscientious people have been shown to have longer lifespan. Again, these kinds of qualities suggest stronger cognitive functioning, which acts as a preventative measure against the full effects of Alzheimer’s, which destroys brain tissues.

With no research to back a hypothesis about agreeableness up, researchers did not propose one.

All of the participants in the study were 72 years of age or older. They took the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, a 60-item questionnaire that measures the five major personality traits. Participants’ diagnoses of dementia were made by a panel of experts—15.1% of the sample was estimated to be probable cases of dementia.

After statistical analyses, results indicated that those with Alzheimer’s disease did have higher levels of neuroticism, and lower levels of openness and conscientiousness, as researchers predicted.

The researchers in this study emphasized that being able to profile those that have a certain disorder is an important first step in hypothesis testing and later developing of preventative measures.