title: Personality and mortality in old age.
abstract: We examined the relation of personality to mortality in 883 older Catholic clergy members (69% women). At baseline, they completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, which assesses the five principal dimensions of personality. They were followed for a mean of 5.1 years, during which 182 deaths occurred. Risk of death was nearly doubled in those with a high neuroticism score (90th percentile) compared with a low score (10th percentile) and was approximately halved in those with a high conscientiousness score compared with a low score. Findings for extraversion were mixed, and neither agreeableness nor openness was strongly related to mortality. The results suggest that personality is associated with mortality in old age.
authors.affiliation: Rush Institute for Healthy Aging and Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Chicago, Illinois 60612, USA. rwilson@rush.edu
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: Carlos F
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Mendes de Leon
authors.forename: Julia L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bienias
authors.forename: Denis A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Evans
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Bennett
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged / Q000523:psychology*; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002410:Catholicism; D002641:Chicago / Q000453:epidemiology; D002977:Clergy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009026:Mortality; D010551:Personality; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012306:Risk