Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences
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The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences 59:P110-P116 (2004)
© 2004 The Gerontological Society of America

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Personality and Mortality in Old Age

Robert S. Wilson1,3,4,, Carlos F. Mendes de Leon2, Julia L. Bienias2, Denis A. Evans1,2,4 and David A. Bennett1,4

1 Rush Institute for Healthy Aging and Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Departments of 2 Internal Medicine
3 Psychology
4 Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.

Address correspondence to Robert S. Wilson, PhD, Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Armour Academic Center, 600 S. Paulina, Suite 1038, Chicago, IL 60612. E-mail: rwilson{at}rush.edu

We examined the relation of personality to mortality in 883 older Catholic clergy members (69% women). At baseline, they completed the NEO Five-Factor Inventory, which assesses the five principal dimensions of personality. They were followed for a mean of 5.1 years, during which 182 deaths occurred. Risk of death was nearly doubled in those with a high neuroticism score (90th percentile) compared with a low score (10th percentile) and was approximately halved in those with a high conscientiousness score compared with a low score. Findings for extraversion were mixed, and neither agreeableness nor openness was strongly related to mortality. The results suggest that personality is associated with mortality in old age.






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