Personality and cognitive resilience to accelerated epigenetic aging.

Higher neuroticism was associated with worse-than-expected cognition relative to epigenetic aging for both GrimAge and DunedinPoAM38 measures.

• Sample consisted of 2926 adults aged 50-98 years (58% female, Mean age = 68.72, SD = 9.57) from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS).
• Cognitive resilience was operationalized as the residual from the regression of cognition on epigenetic aging measures.
• Associations were found controlling for demographic factors using linear regression analyses.
• These associations persisted when participants with cognitive impairment were excluded.

Higher conscientiousness and openness were associated with better-than-expected cognition relative to epigenetic aging across both measures.

• Both GrimAge and DunedinPoAM38 epigenetic measures were used, with data obtained in 2016.
• Personality data were obtained in 2014/2016.
• Associations held across both epigenetic aging measures, suggesting robustness of findings.
• Results persisted when participants with cognitive impairment were excluded.

Logistic regression indicated that higher neuroticism was associated with a lower likelihood of cognitive resilience to accelerated epigenetic aging, while higher conscientiousness and openness were associated with a higher likelihood.

• Cognitive resilience was also examined as a binary outcome in logistic regression analyses.
• Neuroticism showed a negative association with the likelihood of cognitive resilience.
• Conscientiousness and openness showed positive associations with the likelihood of cognitive resilience.
• These logistic regression findings were consistent with the linear regression results.

The associations between personality traits and cognitive resilience to epigenetic aging were partially accounted for by multiple covariates.

• Covariates included disease burden, sleep quality, physical activity, smoking, depressive symptoms, childhood adversity, lifetime trauma, and APOE e4 status.
• Associations were only partially attenuated, not eliminated, by these covariates.
• This suggests that personality traits have an influence on cognitive resilience beyond these clinical, behavioral, and psychological factors.

There was little evidence that age or sex moderated the associations between personality traits and cognitive resilience to epigenetic aging.

• Moderation analyses tested whether age and sex interacted with personality traits in predicting cognitive resilience.
• Neither age nor sex significantly moderated the personality-cognitive resilience associations.
• This suggests the personality-cognitive resilience associations are broadly generalizable across age groups and sexes within this sample.

The study used two epigenetic aging measures—GrimAge and DunedinPoAM38—to assess accelerated epigenetic aging.

• Both epigenetic aging measures and cognitive data were obtained in 2016.
• GrimAge is an epigenetic clock associated with mortality and morbidity.
• DunedinPoAM38 measures the pace of aging based on longitudinal biomarker changes.
• Using two distinct measures allowed for assessment of consistency of findings across different operationalizations of epigenetic aging.