A lot of factors go into a person’s dementia risk. According to a new report, an individual’s personality plays a role as well.
People with high neuroticism and low conscientiousness are more likely to develop dementia, according to an analysis from a team out of Northwestern University and the University of California, Davis.
The report was published on Nov. 29 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.
“We’ve seen in previous research that if someone is higher in neuroticism, they have higher odds of being clinically diagnosed with dementia, whereas those higher in conscientiousness have lower odds of developing dementia,” Eileen Graham, PhD, associate professor of medical social sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and senior author, said in a statement. “However, those clinical diagnoses are typically based on assessments of cognition. We wondered how personality traits might be related to clinically diagnosed dementia compared to dementia based on neuropathology markers assessed at autopsy.”
The study found that the differences weren’t linked to brain tissue damage, but to the way that certain personality traits help people navigate dementia-related impairments.
The scientists believe that some personality characteristics may make people more resilient to the damage caused by diseases like Alzheimer’s. That is, some people with certain traits may find a way to cope with the disease better.
“Neuroticism is related to dementia decline, and people with neuroticism are more prone to anxiousness, moodiness and worry whereas conscientious people are more likely to exercise, make and go to preventive health appointments and drink less,” Graham said. “So maybe that’s where an intervention might be useful to improve someone’s health behaviors for better health outcomes.”
The research centered on the “big five” personality traits (conscientiousness, extraversion, openness to experience, neuroticism and agreeableness) over the course of a person’s life — and how those traits can impact health, disease onset, cognitive decline and death.
The team evaluated eight studies covering about 44,000 people. Of them, 1,703 developed dementia.
Personality is typically thought to be linked to dementia risk through behavior, the scientists said. For instance, people who are conscientious may be more likely to eat well and take care of their health, which tends to mean they’ll have better overall health in the long term. High scores of negative traits and low scores on positive traits were linked to a higher risk for being diagnosed with dementia. High scores on openness to experience, agreeability and life satisfaction had a protective effect in a smaller group of studies.
