Robert S. Wilson is a professor of neuropsychology at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. Brent Roberts is a professor of psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana.

Both are co-authors of the article “Conscientiousness and the Incidence of Alzheimer Disease and Mild Cognitive Impairment” (2007; 64:1204-1212) in the Monday, October 1, 2007 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

The article involves a twelve-year study, called the Religious Orders Study, of 997 older Catholic priests, nuns, and brothers, who at the beginning of the study did not have dementia. Other collaborators in the study include Julie A. Schneider, Steven E. Arnold, and Julia L. Bienias.

In the study, the research team gave numerous personality tests and medical and neurological examinations to the subjects. They were also asked to rank themselves according to their perception of themselves with respect to various qualities associated with conscientiousness.

After taking into account personality characteristics such as physical (inactivity, etc.), medical (smoking, etc.), cognitive (mental abilities, etc.), and social (limited social contacts, etc.) factors that might skew the results, the researchers found that the subjects ranked the highest in conscientiousness (within the 90th percentile) had an 89% lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Such people also were found to have a slower rate of advancement of Alzheimer’s disease if they indeed got the disease.

According to Associated Press writer Carla K. Johnson, “Astoundingly, the brains of some of the dutiful people in the study were examined after their deaths and were found to have lesions that would meet accepted criteria for Alzheimer's — even though these people had shown no signs of dementia.”

In a follow-up to this statement, Johnson quotes Wilson, “This adds to our knowledge that lifestyle, personality, how we think, feel and behave are very importantly tied up with risk for this terrible illness. It may suggest new ideas for trying to delay the onset of this illness.”

Wilson’s team were not sure why this relationship exists but assume that it might result because more conscientious people are able to better cope with difficulties than less conscientious people. Further studies will be conducted to find a scientific explanation for this relationship.


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