Openness declines in advance of death in late adulthood.

ABSTRACT: Openness to experience has been found to be a correlate of successful aging outcomes yet also has been found to decline from middle age onward. We hypothesized that decline in openness would be associated with death. Using longitudinal data from the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging (SATSA), the analytic sample encompassed 1954 individuals, approximately two-thirds of whom were deceased. We tested whether openness declines across late adulthood and, central to our hypothesis, whether the decline correlated with age at death. Multivariate modeling adjusted for age at study entry, sex, education, as well as the time-varying effects of physical illness, depressive symptoms, and cognitive ability. Correlations between change in neuroticism and extraversion and death were modeled for compari

SUBMITTER: Sharp ES 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6441733 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature