Tapia-Munoz, Thamara;
Ajnakina, Olesya;
Fancourt, Daisy;
Steptoe, Andrew;
(2023)
Personality traits and loneliness among older people in the UK: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.
European Journal of Personality
10.1177/08902070231206196.
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Abstract
Little research has analysed the relationship between personality traits and loneliness, considering polygenic risk scores (PGSs), social isolation, socioeconomic, and health factors. We used data from 4,892 older adults 52 years and older from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). ELSA wave 5 (2010/2011) was our baseline, and wave 6 (2012/2013) to wave 9 (2018/2019) was the loneliness follow-up. Polygenic risk scores for loneliness were derived from genome-wide association studies. We conducted multiple linear regression and multilevel LMMs to analyse the cross-sectional and longitudinal relationship between personality traits and loneliness. Extroversion (Coef. = -.375; 95% CI:−.447 to .302), Neuroticism (Coef. = .557; 95% CI: .485–.629), Agreeableness (Coef. = −.188: 95% CI: −.273 to .103), Conscientiousness (Coef. = −.183; 95% CI: −.271 to .095), and Openness to Experience (Coef. = −.170; 95% CI: −.236 to .103) were associated with loneliness at baseline. Over eight years of follow-up, loneliness levels decreased on average. Only Extroversion was associated with the loneliness rate of decline (Coef. = .012; 95% CI: .002–.022) after potential confounders had been considered. An important task of health and social services is to identify older adults at risk of physical, mental, and cognitive health issues. The success of public health and clinical interventions to reduce loneliness could be informed by a consideration of personality profiles.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Personality traits and loneliness among older people in the UK: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analysis from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1177/08902070231206196 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08902070231206196 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2023. Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage). Request permissions for this article. |
| Keywords: | Social Sciences, Psychology, Social, Psychology, loneliness, lonely, personality traits, social isolation, extroversion, neuroticism, older adults, ALL-CAUSE MORTALITY, SOCIAL-ISOLATION, DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMS, EVOLUTIONARY-THEORY, CHICAGO HEALTH, ADULTS, AGE, ASSOCIATION, PREDICTORS, MEN |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Behavioural Science and Health |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10187855 |
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