The New York Times (10/17, Bakalar) reports, “Extroversion, an energetic disposition, calmness, and maturity” in high school “were associated with a lower risk of dementia 50 years later,” researchers concluded after administering “a 150-item personality inventory given to a national sample of teenagers in 1960.” That “survey assessed character traits – sociability, calmness, empathy, maturity, conscientiousness, self-confidence and others – using scores ranging from low to high.” Investigators then “linked the scores of 82,232 of the test-takers to Medicare data on diagnoses of dementia from 2011 to 2013.” The findings were published online Oct. 16 in JAMA Psychiatry. Also covering the story are HealthDay (10/17, Mozes) and Healio (10/17, Gramigna).
Related Links:
— “Can Personality Affect Dementia Risk?, “Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, October 17, 2019