title: Personality and cognitive decline in the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area follow-up study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the association between personality domains and 11-year cognitive decline in a sample from a population-based study.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data from Waves 3 (1993-1996) and 4 (2003-2004) of the Baltimore cohort of the Epidemiologic Catchment Area (ECA) study were used for analyses. The sample included 561 adults (mean age ± SD: 45.2 ± 10.78 years) who completed the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised prior to Wave 4. Participants also completed the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and immediate and delayed word recall tests at Wave 3, and at Wave 4, 10.9 ± 0.6 years later.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In models adjusted for baseline cognitive performance, demographic characteristics, medical conditions, depressive symptoms, and psychotropic medication use, each 10-point increase in Neuroticism T-scores was associated with a 0.15-point decrease in MMSE scores (B = -0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI]: -0.30, -0.01), whereas each 10-point increase in Conscientiousness T-scores was associated with a 0.18-point increase on the MMSE (B = 0.18, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.32) and a 0.21-point increase in immediate recall (B = 0.21, 95% CI: 0.003, 0.41) between baseline and follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Findings suggest that greater Neuroticism is associated with decline, and greater Conscientiousness is associated with improvement in performance on measures of general cognitive function and memory in adults. Further studies are needed to determine the extent to which personality traits in midlife are associated with clinically significant cognitive outcomes in older adults, such as mild cognitive impairment and dementia, and to identify potential mediators of the association between personality and cognitive trajectories.
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Rebecca S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Hock
authors.affiliation: Yale University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, New Haven, CT.
authors.forename: Hochang Benjamin
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: O Joseph
authors.initials: OJ
authors.lastname: Bienvenu
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Gerald
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Nestadt
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Jack F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Samuels
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Jeanine M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Parisi
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD; Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Baltimore, MD.
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of Mental Health, Baltimore, MD. Electronic address: aspira@jhsph.edu.
authors.forename: Adam P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Spira
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology; D015142:Baltimore / Q000453:epidemiology; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory
keywords: Personality; cognition; conscientiousness; dementia; depression; neuroticism