- CHICAGO (Reuters) - People
who lead a good clean life -- those who are conscientious, self-disciplined
and scrupulous -- appear to be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease,
U.S. researchers said on Monday.
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- The finding is the latest from a long-running study of
nearly 1,000 Catholic nuns, priests and brothers by Robert Wilson of Rush
University Medical Center in Chicago. The study appeared in the Archives
of General Psychiatry.
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- Wilson and colleagues defined conscientiousness in the
study as people who control their impulses and are goal-directed. These
people are often considered dependable.
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- People in Wilson's study did not have dementia when the
study started in 1994.
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- The researchers asked the volunteers to rank themselves
on a five-point scale according to a 12-item inventory, with questions
such as "I am a productive person who always gets the job done."
From this, they derived a conscientiousness score, based on a scale of
0 to 48. The average score was 34.
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- They were also given various medical and neurological
exams, including cognitive testing. Follow-up tests were done each year
through 2006. A total of 176 people developed Alzheimer's disease during
the study.
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- People who were highly conscientious -- those in the
90th percentile with scores of 40 or higher, had an 89 percent lower risk
of developing Alzheimer's disease than those who ranked in the 10th percentile,
with a score of 28 or lower.
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- The researchers also found that conscientiousness was
linked with a slower rate of cognitive decline and a lower risk of mild
cognitive impairment, a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease.
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- Why conscientious people are less prone to Alzheimer's
is not clear, but Wilson and colleagues suggested it may be because conscientious
people tend to be more resilient, making them better able to cope with
difficulties.
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- Such people also tend to have a fair measure of success
in school and work, they said.
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- "These factors might lessen the adverse consequences
of negative life events and chronic psychological distress, which have
been associated with risk of dementia in old age," the authors wrote.
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- According to the World Health Organization, about 18
million people worldwide have Alzheimer's disease, a brain-wasting condition
marked by memory loss and confusion that becomes so severe patients lose
the ability to care for themselves.
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