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57/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 57 out of 100. Long-term cohort studies

Topic: Amyloid, tau and blood-test diagnosis

Plain-language summary

This study examines whether neuroticism is differentially associated with risk of incident Alzheimer's disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD), and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using a prospective study design. Participants from the UK Biobank (N = 401,422) completed a self-report neuroticism scale in 2006-2010 and incident all-cause dementia, AD, VD, and FTD were ascertained using electronic health records or death records up to 2018. During an average follow-up of 8.8 years (3,566,123 person-years), there were 1798 incident of all-cause dementia, 675 AD, 376 VD, and 81 FTD.

What this study adds

Evidence grade: Low

The record lists 401,422 participants. This study examined whether the personality trait neuroticism is linked to different types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. Reported effect size: HR = 1.70; HR = 1.42; HR = 1.73.

Taken from this record’s own fields, not from reading the paper. The grade is assigned from the abstract’s wording; what that means.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Terracciano, A., Aschwanden, D., Passamonti, L., Toschi, N., Stephan, Y., Luchetti, M., et al. (2021). Is neuroticism differentially associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia? Journal of psychiatric research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.039

Vancouver

Terracciano A, Aschwanden D, Passamonti L, Toschi N, Stephan Y, Luchetti M, et al. Is neuroticism differentially associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia? Journal of psychiatric research. 2021. doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.039. PMID: 33819874.

BibTeX

@article{terracciano2021-33819874,
  author  = {Terracciano, A. and Aschwanden, D. and Passamonti, L. and Toschi, N. and Stephan, Y. and Luchetti, M. and Lee, J. H. and Sesker, A. and others},
  title   = {{Is neuroticism differentially associated with risk of Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia?}},
  journal = {Journal of psychiatric research},
  year    = {2021},
  doi     = {10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.039},
  pmid    = {33819874},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2021.03.039}
}

Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.

How to read this study

Design: our record does not state a study design, so check the methods section of the original before weighing the result.
Size: the record lists 401,422 participants. Ask whether that is enough for the question, and who they were.
Effect: the record reports “HR = 1.70; HR = 1.42; HR = 1.73”. A statistically significant result can still be small in daily life.

What the evidence grade means here

This page is graded low. alzhub.org assigns the grade automatically from keywords in the abstract, not from reading the paper. Low means the abstract matched neither pattern. It is the default label, and it does not mean the work is poor; many sound lab and imaging papers land here. It can add at most 5 of the 100 points in the study score, and it is a label about design, not a verdict on whether the findings are true.

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Key findings

Participants from the UK Biobank (N = 401,422) completed a self-report neuroticism scale in 2006-2010 and incident all-cause dementia, AD, VD, and FTD were ascertained using electronic health records or death records up to 2018.
During an average follow-up of 8.8 years (3,566,123 person-years), there were 1798 incident of all-cause dementia, 675 AD, 376 VD, and 81 FTD.
Accounting for age and sex, compared to individuals in the low quartile, individuals in the top quartile of neuroticism had higher risk of all-cause dementia (HR = 1.70; 95% CI: 1.49-1.93), AD (HR = 1.42; 1.15-1.75), VD (HR = 1.73; 1.30-2.29), but not FTD (HR = 0.89; 0.49-1.63).
The associations with AD and VD were attenuated but remained significant after further accounting for education, household income, deprivation index, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart attack, ever smoker, physical activity, obesity, hemoglobin A1c, C-reactive protein, and low-density lipoprotein.

Why it matters

This study examined whether the personality trait neuroticism is linked to different types of dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, vascular dementia, and frontotemporal dementia. It does not show that changing personality or treating neuroticism prevents or cures dementia.

Study details

Participants401,422
Effect sizeHR = 1.70; HR = 1.42; HR = 1.73
Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 57/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design and randomized / blinded because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Journal of psychiatric research)
Journal's citation record	2 / 4	Journal of Psychiatric Research: journal h-index 220 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	3 / 5	2021 — within 6 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	4 / 4	401,422 participants
Effect reported	3 / 3	Effect reported with a statistic (interval, p-value, ratio or similar)
Studied in people	3 / 3	Studied in people (participant count stated)
Randomized / blinded	0 / 2	No randomization or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	4 / 7	Cited 59 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	3 / 5	8.4 citations a year over 7 year(s) since 2021
Impact for its field and year	3 / 6	Cited 6.5× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	1 / 6	Cited by 1 other studies in this library
Still being cited	2 / 4	Cited 34 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	3 / 4	Last-listed author Angelina R. Sutin: h-index 78 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	3 / 3	Harvard University: institution h-index 3,235 (OpenAlex)
Multicenter collaboration	3 / 3	OpenAlex lists 10 institution(s) in 5 countries
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 33819874)
Free to read	0 / 2	Behind a paywall — scores zero
Total	57 / 100	—

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