A Benefit of Being Conscientious
Alzheimer's is less common among those who do the right thing

(HealthDay News) -- Conscientious people who believe in "doing the right thing" appear less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease as they grow older.

The exact reason for this isn't clear, but it might be related to the degree of conscientiousness -- and the associated increase in responsibilities -- a person takes on as he or she ages, according to one expert.

"If, in old age, you have been unable to show that kind of growth, if people are unable to learn from experience, that might have implications for brain structure," Robert Wilson, a professor of neuropsychology at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago , told HealthDay .

Wilson is the lead author of a long-term study of Catholic nuns, priests and brothers that began in 1994. The participants' level of conscientiousness was assessed at the start of the study and once every year after that.

"We've been following up for 12 years, and people who are low in the conscientiousness trait are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease," Wilson said. "That is true even when we controlled for other personality traits and risk factors and also how people were physically, cognitively and socially active."

Conscientiousness was ranked at the top of personality-based risk factors and was as important as neuroticism in determining a person's likelihood of developing Alzheimer's disease, the study found.

And the researchers suggested that learning more about how conscientiousness might affect Alzheimer's risk could help in the development of new methods to fight the disease. Their study was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry .

Brent Roberts, a psychology professor at the University of Illinois , suggested that a physical mechanism related to the cardiovascular system is another possible explanation for why conscientious people may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's.

"Conscientiousness deletes risk factors that cause premature death," Roberts told HealthDay . "It is completely speculative, but people who are less conscientious are more likely to smoke and exercise less. But it could be something completely different, something we have yet to identify."

In another study that included 1,400 people, Finnish researchers found that people who didn't finish high school were more likely to develop dementia or Alzheimer's than were those with more education. Compared with people who had a low level of education, those with a high level of education were 80 percent less likely to develop dementia, and those with a medium level of education had a 40 percent lower risk. The findings were published in the journal Neurology .

"Generally speaking, people with low education levels seem to lead unhealthier lifestyles, which could suggest the two work concurrently to contribute to dementia or Alzheimer's disease, but our results showed a person's education predicted dementia on its own," study author Dr. Tiia Ngandu, of the University of Kuopio, in Finland, said in a prepared statement.

"It may be that highly educated people have a greater cognitive reserve, which is the brain's ability to maintain function in spite of damage, thus making it easier to postpone the negative effects of dementia," Ngandu said. "Additionally, unhealthy lifestyles may independently contribute to the depletion of this reserve."

On the Web

To learn more about Alzheimer's disease, visit the National Institute on Aging online.

SOURCES: HealthDay News ; Robert S. Wilson, Ph.D., professor of neuropsychology, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago; Brent Roberts, Ph.D., professor of psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Ill.; October 2007, Archives of General Psychiatry ; Oct. 1, 2007, Neurology
Author: Robert Preidt
Publication Date: Sept. 30, 2008
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