Depression and personality traits are independent predictors of dementia or cognitive impairment. Despite the well-established relationship between these two psychosocial factors and dementia, no research has been documented on how personality traits can influence dementia in older adults exhibiting depressive symptoms. This study explores the influence of personality traits on the association between change in depression and dementia in old age. A population-based longitudinal cohort study involving two waves of data collected 5 years apart, containing 2210 American older adults, from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to explore if personality traits influence how change in depression predicts the development of dementia. We assessed these relationships while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics. Change in depression increased the likelihood of dementia at T2 by 4.2% (AOR = 1.04, p = 0.019) in the co-variate adjusted model. Personality traits, overall, did not influence how depression predicts the development of dementia. However, agreeableness individually nullified the effect of depression on the development of dementia, whereas extraversion was the only personality trait that significantly predicted dementia. Prosocial behaviors should be promoted in old age as these appear to be protective. In addition, early life education and a strong social support can keep the depression–dementia spectrum at bay in old age.
With increasing dependence on other people in old age, environmental resources become an important asset for older adults to experience healthy aging. Data on the longitudinal relationship between neighborhood and mental health in late life is scanty. This study utilized hierarchical multiple regression model analysis to investigate whether and which neighborhood factors predicted depression and anxiety among older Americans followed up for over five years within the same neighborhood. Two waves of data containing a cohort of 1,731 older adults from the NSHAP project were used. Outcome measures were depression and anxiety. Predictors were four neighborhood factors: Social cohesion (NSC), social ties (NSC), neighborhood problems (NP), and perceived neighborhood danger (PND). We adjusted for demographic and physical health characteristics. The mean age of the respondents was 71.4 ± 6.5 years and were mostly females (55.5%). Lower NSC and a higher PND significantly predicted depression. However, the model only explained 2.8% of the variance in depression. In the covariate-adjusted model, none of the neighborhood factors predicted depression, but the model significantly improved to 32.5%. NP was the only significant predictor of anxiety in the final model and explained 27.8% of the variance in anxiety. Covariates, which are primary determinants of mental health disparity, have a much larger role to play. This study sheds some light on the complexity of the relationship between neighborhood and mental health in older adults. Future policy development and interventions should target improving both physical and social environments to enhancing the mental wellbeing of older adults.
Depression and personality traits are independent predictors of dementia or cognitive impairment. Despite the well-established relationship between these two psychosocial factors and dementia, no research has been documented on how personality traits can influence dementia in older adults exhibiting depressive symptoms. This study explored the influence of personality traits on the association between change in depression and dementia in old age. We used a population-based longitudinal cohort study involving two waves of data collected 5 years apart, containing 2210 American older adults, from the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project to explore if personality traits influence how change in depression predicts the development of dementia. We used multivariate logistic regression to examine the relationship between depression and dementia at T2 while adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, comorbidity index at T1, and baseline dementia. Change in depression increased the likelihood of dementia at T2 by 4.2% (AOR = 1.04, p = 0.019) in the co-variate adjusted model. Personality traits, overall, did not influence how depression predicts the development of dementia. However, agreeableness individually nullified the effect of depression on the development of dementia, whereas extraversion was the only personality trait that significantly predicted dementia. We recommend the promotion of prosocial behaviors in old age as these appear to be protective. In addition, early life education and a strong social support can keep the depression-dementia spectrum at bay in old age.
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