Harm Avoidance and Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
- 1 October 2011
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Psychosomatic Medicine
- Vol. 73 (8), 690-696
- https://doi.org/10.1097/psy.0b013e3182302ale
Abstract
Objective: To test the hypothesis that harm avoidance, a trait associated with behavioral inhibition, is associated with the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Methods: A total of 791 adults 55 years and older without dementia completed a standard self-report measure of harm avoidance. They then underwent annual evaluations that included detailed cognitive testing and clinical classification of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), dementia, and AD. In a uniform neuropathologic examination of those who died, counts of neuritic plaques, diffuse plaques, and neurofibrillary tangles were standardized and combined to yield a pathologic measure of disease. The relation of harm avoidance to incidence of AD and related outcomes was estimated in analyses adjusted for age, sex, and education. Results: During a mean of 3.5 years of annual observation, 98 people (12.4%) developed incident AD. A high level of harm avoidance (90th percentile) was associated with a more than two-fold increase in risk of AD compared with a low score (10th percentile). Higher harm avoidance was also associated with increased incidence of MCI and more rapid decline in episodic memory, working memory, and perceptual speed (but not semantic memory or visuospatial ability). In 116 participants who died and underwent brain autopsy, harm avoidance was not related to a composite measure of plaques and tangles. Conclusions: A high level of the harm avoidance trait, indicating a tendency toward behavioral inhibition, is related to the risk of developing AD and its precursor, MCI. AD = Alzheimer's disease; MCI = mild cognitive impairment; SD = standard deviation; SE = standard errorKeywords
This publication has 42 references indexed in Scilit:
- Cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer disease in a community populationNeurology, 2010
- Olfactory Impairment in Presymptomatic Alzheimer's DiseaseAnnals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2009
- Relation of cognitive activity to risk of developing Alzheimer diseaseNeurology, 2007
- Cloninger’s Temperament Dimensions, Socio-economic and Lifestyle Factors and Metabolic Syndrome Markers at Age 31 Years in the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966Journal of Health Psychology, 2007
- The relationship between cerebral Alzheimer's disease pathology and odour identification in old ageJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2007
- Personality in essential tremor: further evidence of non-motor manifestations of the diseaseJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2004
- Functional genomics and proteomics: application in neurosciencesJournal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 2004
- Assessment of Lifetime Participation in Cognitively Stimulating ActivitiesJournal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 2003
- Cognitive Impairment with No Dementia (CIND): Longitudinal Studies, the Findings, and the IssuesThe Clinical Neuropsychologist, 2000
- Clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's diseaseNeurology, 1984