Paper
Thursday, July 22, 2004
This presentation is part of : Quality of Life and Aging
The Importance of Personality in Predicting Quality of Life as People Progress Through Dementia
Sandy C. Burgener, RNC, PhD, FAAN, College of Nursing, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL, USA and Prudence Twigg, RNC, MS, Indiana University, Indianapolis, IN, USA.
Learning Objective #1: Describe the relevance of personality traits in predicting quality of life outcomes at various stages of dementia
Learning Objective #2: Identify people at highest risk for poorer quality of life outcomes at various stages of dementia, based on personality traits
Objectives: The study purpose was to identify predictors of quality of life (QoL) outcomes in persons with dementia.

Design: A descriptive, longitudinal design was used.

Population, Sample, Setting: A total of 96 participant pairs were sampled (persons with Alzheimer's, vascular, Lewy body, or mixed dementia and their family caregiver).

Concepts/ Variables: The major predictor variable described here is personality, measured using the Adult Personality Rating Scale (APRS) and 60-item NEO-FFI. Caregivers completed the APRS, while the NEO-FFI was completed with the person with dementia. QoL was operationalized as functional ability, illness, psychological well being (including depression), productive behaviors (problem solving, task performance, and social behaviors), and personal control.

Methods: Interviews were conducted within a year of the disease diagnosis (baseline) and every 6 months. Caregivers and care receivers were interviewed separately.

Findings: Controlling for mental status in the regression analyses, at baseline, task-orientation predicted to functional ability and all three aspects of productive behaviors. Extroversion predicted to psychological well being, while neuroticism predicted to functional ability, depression, and illness. Predictors were similar at 18 months with extroversion now predicting to problem solving and hostility predicting to functional ability. Neuroticism and conscientiousness (R2 of .26 and .24) also now predicted to personal control. At 42 months, predictors remained consistent with extroversion predicting more strongly to psychological well being than at 18 months (R2 = .59 and .32, respectively) and to the social behaviors (R2 = .79).

Conclusions: The importance of personality as a stable and consistent predictor of QoL outcomes in persons with dementia is well supported by these findings.

Implications: The assessment of personality may be an important factor for identifying which persons may be at greatest risk for poorer QoL outcomes throughout the various stages of dementia.

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