2022/04/11 by Tomiko Yoneda, Eileen K Graham, Eileen Graham +8 · 36 citations
Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aging and Gerontology Research #Big Five personality traits #Clinical psychology #Cognition #Cognitive aging #Cognitive decline #Cognitive impairment #Dementia #Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research #Developmental psychology #Disease #Gerontology #Health disparities and outcomes #Life span #Medicine #Personality #Psychiatry #Psychology #Social psychology
paper · doi:10.1037/pspp0000418
published in Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 124(2), 381-395 (American Psychological Association)
openalex publication_date 2022/04/11 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
= 80 years; 74% female) over up to 23 annual assessments. Multistate survival modeling examined the extent to which conscientiousness, neuroticism, and extraversion, assessed using the NEO Five Factor Inventory, were associated with transitions between cognitive status categories and death. Additionally, multinomial regression models estimated cognitive health span and total survival based on standard deviation units of personality traits. Adjusting for demographics, depressive symptoms, and apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4, personality traits were most important in the transition from no cognitive impairment (NCI) to MCI. For instance, higher conscientiousness was associated with a decreased risk of transitioning from NCI to MCI, hazard ratio (HR) = 0.78, 95% CI [0.72, 0.85] and higher neuroticism was associated with an increased risk of transitioning from NCI to MCI, HR = 1.12, 95% CI [1.04, 1.21]. Additional significant and nonsignificant results are discussed in the context of the existing literature. While personality traits were not associated with total longevity, individuals higher in conscientiousness and extraversion, and lower in neuroticism, had more years of cognitive health span, particularly female participants. These findings provide novel understanding of the simultaneous associations between personality traits and transitions between cognitive status categories and death, as well as cognitive health span and total longevity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).