Abstract
Objectives
Although personality change is typically considered a symptom of dementia, some studies suggest that personality change may be an early indication of dementia. One prospective ...study found increases in neuroticism preceding dementia diagnosis (Yoneda, T., Rush, J., Berg, A. I., Johansson, B., & Piccinin, A. M. (2017). Trajectories of personality traits preceding dementia diagnosis. The Journals of Gerontology. Series B, Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 72, 922–931. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbw006). This study extends this research by examining trajectories of personality traits in additional longitudinal studies of aging.
Methods
Three independent series of latent growth curve models were fitted to data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam and Einstein Aging Study to estimate trajectories of personality traits in individuals with incident dementia diagnosis (total N = 210), in individuals with incident Mild Cognitive Impairment (N = 135), and in individuals who did not receive a diagnosis during follow-up periods (total N = 1740).
Results
Controlling for sex, age, education, depressive symptoms, and the interaction between age and education, growth curve analyses consistently revealed significant linear increases in neuroticism preceding dementia diagnosis in both datasets and in individuals with mild cognitive impairment. Analyses examining individuals without a diagnosis revealed nonsignificant change in neuroticism overtime.
Discussion
Replication of our previous work in 2 additional datasets provides compelling evidence that increases in neuroticism may be early indication of dementia, which can facilitate development of screening assessments.
The global prevalence of multimorbidity is increasing as the population ages. As individuals get older, they are likely to develop multiple chronic conditions, and nearly two-thirds of older adults ...in the United States are estimated to experience 2 or more chronic conditions. The present preregistered study examined whether multimorbidity was associated with longitudinal changes in health-related quality of life (i.e., anxiety, depression, and physical function) and whether these associations were moderated by sociodemographic factors (i.e., sex, race, marital status, income, insurance, and education).
Data come from the Health Literacy and Cognitive Function Among Older Adults Longitudinal Study (LitCog), a prospective cohort study of English-speaking older adults (N = 900). At each measurement occasion, participants reported anxiety, depression, and physical function using the Patient Reported Outcomes Information System, chronic conditions, and sociodemographic characteristics. We employed multilevel growth models to estimate changes in health-related quality of life, with multimorbidities as a predictor and sociodemographics as covariates.
Results indicated that individuals with multiple chronic conditions reported persistently high levels of anxiety and depression, and worse physical function. We found evidence for racial health disparities, such that individuals who identified as non-White experienced worse health-related quality of life as multimorbidities increased, relative to White participants.
These results contribute to the current conversation about the long-term impacts of structural and systemic barriers experienced by minoritized groups. We further discuss the public health implications of multimorbidity in older adulthood.
Loneliness and social isolation are major public health concerns among older adults in Japan. Generativity, the concern for and commitment to future generations, may buffer older adults from ...loneliness. This study examined the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between generativity and social asymmetry (the discrepancy between social isolation and loneliness) among older adults in Japan.
Data were from 2 waves (2008 and 2012) of the Midlife in Japan survey, a nationally representative longitudinal study of 645 adults aged 30-79 residing in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Generativity was measured using the 6-item Loyola Generativity Scale. Social asymmetry was computed as the residual score from regressing loneliness onto social isolation.
Higher generativity levels were associated with lower social asymmetry scores (B=-0.21, SE=0.04), but generativity change across waves did not predict social asymmetry 4 years later (B=-0.04, SE=0.06).
Generativity may play a protective role in buffering older adults from the adverse effects of social isolation on loneliness. Promoting generativity among older adults may be a potential intervention strategy to reduce loneliness and improve well-being in aging populations in Japan.
In preregistered secondary data analyses, we compared the predictive utility of trait affect and average daily affect for predicting three health outcomes across nine years (N = 1,376). Trait ...positive and negative affect were assessed using a 25-item dispositional questionnaire. Average daily affect was assessed as the mean of eight daily diary reports of the same items. Trait affect and average daily affect both had medium associations with self-reported general health and chronic health conditions. Moreover, both types of affect predicted mortality when adjusting for baseline health and demographics. Effect sizes were comparable for trait compared to daily affect. These findings demonstrate convergent predictive validity of trait and daily affect measures.
Examining loneliness and social isolation during population-wide historical events may shed light on important theoretical questions about age differences, including whether these differences hold ...across different regions and the timecourse of the unfolding event. We used a systematic, preregistered approach of coordinated data analysis (CDA) of four studies (total N = 1,307; total observations = 18,492) that varied in design (intensive repeated-measures and cross-sectional), region, timing, and timescale during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.
We harmonized our datasets to a common period within 2020-2021 and created a common set of variables. We used a combination of ordinary least squares regression and multilevel modeling to address the extent to which there was within- and between-person variation in the associations between social isolation and loneliness, and whether these associations varied as a function of age.
Within- and between-person effects of social interactions were negatively associated with loneliness in one study; in follow-up sensitivity analyses, these patterns held across early and later pandemic periods. Across all datasets, there was no evidence of age differences in the within-person or between-person associations of social interactions and loneliness.
Applying the CDA methodological framework allowed us to detect common and divergent patterns of social interactions and loneliness across samples, ages, regions, periods, and study designs.
Major stressors often challenge emotional well-being—increasing negative emotions and decreasing positive emotions. But how long do these emotional hits last? Prior theory and research contain ...conflicting views. Some research suggests that most individuals’ emotional well-being will return to, or even surpass, baseline levels relatively quickly. Others have challenged this view, arguing that this type of resilient response is uncommon. The present research provides a strong test of resilience theory by examining emotional trajectories over the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In two pre-registered longitudinal studies (total N =1147), we examined average emotional trajectories and predictors of individual differences in emotional trajectories across 13 waves of data from February through September 2020. The pandemic had immediate detrimental effects on average emotional well-being. Across the next 6 months, average negative emotions returned to baseline levels with the greatest improvements occurring almost immediately. Yet, positive emotions remained depleted relative to baseline levels, illustrating the limits of typical resilience. Individuals differed substantially around these average emotional trajectories and these individual differences were predicted by socio-demographic characteristics and stressor exposure. We discuss theoretical implications of these findings that we hope will contribute to more nuanced approaches to studying, understanding, and improving emotional well-being following major stressors.
•Low neuroticism and high openness were associated with high cognitive function.•Openness was associated with steeper cognitive decline after dementia diagnosis.•Models were coordinated and ...harmonized across 4 independent longitudinal studies.
There are individual differences in the rates of cognitive decline across later adulthood. Personality traits are among the factors that may account for these differences. The current project investigated whether personality traits were associated with trajectories of cognitive decline, and whether the associations were different before and after dementia diagnosis. The data was analyzed using linear mixed effects regression. Across study aims is a focus on replicability and generalizability. Each question was addressed in four independent longitudinal studies (EAS, MAP, ROS, SATSA), then meta-analyzed, providing estimates of replicability. Results indicated that low neuroticism and high openness were associated with total cognitive function. We detected evidence for cognitive decline in all four samples, and openness was associated with decline post dementia diagnosis.
Abstract
Objectives
Loneliness in the aging population is associated with decreased cognitive function and increased neuropathology; less is understood about the association of loneliness and ...cognitive resilience (CR), defined as the discordance between a person’s actual and expected cognition given their neuropathology. Here we assess the effect of loneliness and change in loneliness on CR at end of life and across older adulthood.
Methods
Data were combined from 2 longitudinal studies of older adults. CR proximate to death (CRlast_level) and across time (CRslope) was obtained by independently regressing global cognition and change in cognition onto multiple neuropathology indicators and extracting the resulting residuals. We used a series of simple linear regression models to assess the effect of loneliness level and change on CRlast_level and CRslope.
Results
Higher baseline loneliness was associated with lower CRlast_level (β = −0.11, 95% confidence interval 95% CI; −0.18, −0.04, p < .01); higher baseline loneliness and increasing loneliness over time was associated with lower CRslope (β = −0.13, 95% CI −0.22, −0.05, p < .01 and β = −0.12, 95% CI −0.20, −0.04, p < .01, respectively). Results were robust to covariate inclusion and independent of objective social isolation.
Discussion
Higher and increasing loneliness was associated with lower CR in the face of neuropathology. These results suggest that some individuals are less resilient to the accumulation of neuropathology than others, and experiencing high/increasing loneliness is a key factor putting some at risk. Interventions aimed at optimizing cognitive function across older adults should include loneliness reduction as a potential area of focus.
INTRODUCTION
The extent to which the Big Five personality traits and subjective well‐being (SWB) are discriminatory predictors of clinical manifestation of dementia versus dementia‐related ...neuropathology is unclear.
METHODS
Using data from eight independent studies (Ntotal= 44,531; Ndementia= 1703; baseline Mage= 49 to 81 years, 26 to 61% female; Mfollow‐up range = 3.53 to 21.00 years), Bayesian multilevel models tested whether personality traits and SWB differentially predicted neuropsychological and neuropathological characteristics of dementia.
RESULTS
Synthesized and individual study results indicate that high neuroticism and negative affect and low conscientiousness, extraversion, and positive affect were associated with increased risk of long‐term dementia diagnosis. There were no consistent associations with neuropathology.
DISCUSSION
This multistudy project provides robust, conceptually replicated and extended evidence that psychosocial factors are strong predictors of dementia diagnosis but not consistently associated with neuropathology at autopsy.
Highlights
N(+), C(−), E(−), PA(−), and NA(+) were associated with incident diagnosis.
Results were consistent despite self‐report versus clinical diagnosis of dementia.
Psychological factors were not associated with neuropathology at autopsy.
Individuals with higher conscientiousness and no diagnosis had less neuropathology.
High C individuals may withstand neuropathology for longer before death.
There has been longstanding and widespread interdisciplinary interest in understanding intergenerational processes, or the extent to which conditions repeat themselves across generations. However, ...due to the difficulty of collecting longitudinal, multigenerational data on early life conditions, less is known about the extent to which offspring experience the same early life conditions that their parents experienced in their own early lives. Using data from a socioeconomically diverse, White U.S. American cohort of 1,312 offspring (50% female) and their fathers (N = 518 families), we address three primary questions: (1) To what extent is there intergenerational continuity in early life experiences (social class, home atmosphere, parent-child relationship quality, health)? (2) Is intergenerational continuity in early life experiences greater for some domains of experience compared to others? and (3) Are there person-level (offspring sex, birth order, perceptions of marital stability) and family-level factors (family size, father education level and education mobility, marital stability) that moderate intergenerational continuity? Multilevel models indicated that intergenerational continuity was particularly robust for childhood social class, but nonsignificant for other early life experiences. Further, intergenerational continuity was moderated by several family-level factors, such that families with higher father education/mobility and marital stability, tended to have offspring with the most optimal early life experiences, regardless of what their father experienced in early life. We discuss the broader theoretical implications for family systems, as well as practical implications for individual-level and family-level interventions.
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