Neurotic Personality Increases Chance of Dementia by 68%

Question

This TikTok discusses a number of personality traits, namely neuroticism, and claims that they have affect an individual's chances of obtaining dementia. This claim seems to be a bit questionable, is it true?

Answer 1

According to the article tagged below, there is a connection between many different personality traits and illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Dementia. There is specific evidence to show these effects, however, overall there is not enough research on the subject to confirm or deny this claim.

Sutin, A. R., Stephan, Y., Luchetti, M., Terracciano, A. (2019). Personality and Alzheimer's disease: An update. Current Alzheimer Research, 16(6), 524-530.

Answer 2

According to a source titled 'The Effect of Personality Traits on Risk of Incident Pre-Dementia Syndromes', it first and foremost addresses how personality traits have been shown to be associated with the risk of dementia yet less is known about the link between personality traits and pre-dementia syndromes. This study suggests that after a median follow-up of 3 years, the findings provide evidence of a distinct relationship between personality traits and the development of specific pre-dementia symptoms. 

According to another source, "Does Personality Affect Risk for Dementia? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis", the results concluded the following: 

"Twelve longitudinal and three case–control studies were included. Five of nine studies found that higher neuroticism was associated with greater dementia risk...Neuroticism increased risk for dementia, and conscientiousness reduced risk. The protective effect of openness was tentative. Extraversion and agreeableness were not associated with dementia. Personality should be incorporated in conceptual models of dementia risk. Clinicians and public health professionals should consider personality when planning dementia risk reduction strategies." (Low). 

Lastly, to consider one more source to prove this claim as a high potential of being true, 'Is personality associated with dementia risk? A met-analytic investigation' straightforwardly claims that 'robust' associations were found of neuroticism and conscientiousness with dementia risk. The concluding statement claims "Overall, the present work confirms consistent associations of neuroticism and conscientiousness with risk of dementia. The associations of the remaining traits were also significant but less robust. We found no evidence of publication bias, suggesting no systematic over- or under-estimation of the estimated effects...Studies are now needed to determine whether and how neuroticism and conscientiousness could be incorporated into interventions for dementia prevention." (Aschwanden). 

After considering three reliable sources, the claim "Neurotic Personality Increases Chance of Dementia by 68%" seems to have been proven TRUE. Nevertheless, while I did not find a specific study that confirms the percentage increase of 68%, every source claims there is an association between dementia and neuroticism. Therefore, the 68% portion of this claim may be labeled as 'No Available Information'. However, the first part of the claim, 'Neutoric Personality Increases Chance of Dementia' seems to be a true statement based on these sources. 

Works Cited/Sources

Aschwanden, D., Strickhouser, J. E., Luchetti, M., Stephan, Y., Sutin, A. R., & Terracciano, A. (2021). Is personality associated with dementia risk? A meta-analytic investigation. Ageing Research Reviews, 67, 101269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101269

Ayers, E., Gulley, E., & Verghese, J. (2020). The effect of personality traits on risk of incident pre‐dementia syndromes. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 68(7), 1554–1559. https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16424

Low, L.-F., Harrison, F., & Lackersteen, S. M. (2013). Does personality affect risk for dementia? A systematic review and meta-analysis. The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 21(8), 713–728. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jagp.2012.08.004

Answer 3

This statement is partially true. From the National Library of Medicine (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374012/)

I found the answer in an article by a variety of doctors including Antonia Terracciano and Yannick Stephan on the website of the National Library of Medicine.  Through their research, they found that personalities do have a correlation to the development of dementia.  However, the article shows that there are other personalities that can lead to this and it does not have a specific percentage.   

ANTONIO TERRACCIANO ET AL (NCBI) - Using brief assessments of personality and cognition, we found robust evidence that personality is associated with risk of cognitive impairment and dementia in a large national sample.

Of the five major dimensions of personality, low conscientiousness and high neuroticism have had the most consistent associations with increased risk of incident dementia.

Compared to the group with normal cognition, individuals classified in the dementia group were more likely to score higher on neuroticism (d = 0.20) and lower on extraversion (d = 0.19), openness (d = 0.17), agreeableness (d = 0.27), and conscientiousness (d = 0.46) (p < 0.05). . The CIND group had a personality profile similar to the dementia group. Except for scoring the highest on neuroticism, the CIND group scored in the middle between normal and dementia groups.

Answer 4

As someone who is involved in a lot of research involving personality disorders and long-term effects, I can confidently say there simply isn't enough research and studies to confirm or deny this claim. With most of the data, correlation can never equal causation because of the type of studies conducted. Dementia is complicated because there are so many variables that go into a person developing it later in life. There's no one answer truly. According to the link I found, there are signs that certain personality traits may indicate dementia later in life, but personality traits are also incredibly different to measure. As stated before, with these types of studies, there can never truly be a definitive answer even if the results show a correlation because there's so many outside variables, and what's true in one study may not be true in another. I think in the future when testing advances then there could be a more definitive answer. 

Personality traits may impact risk for pre-dementia conditions, study finds | PhillyVoice