@article {11513, title = {The Association between Subjective Age and Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome: Results from a Population-Based Cohort Study.}, journal = {The Journals of Gerontology: Series B }, volume = {76}, year = {2021}, pages = {2023-2028}, abstract = {

OBJECTIVES: The motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome, characterized by cognitive complaints and slower gait speed, is a pre-dementia syndrome associated with dementia and mortality risk. The present study examined whether subjective age, that is how old or young individuals feel relative to their chronological age, is related to concurrent and incident MCR syndrome. A relation between subjective age and MCR will inform knowledge on psychological factors related to dementia risk, identify who is at greater risk, and suggest a potential target of intervention.

METHOD: The study sample was composed of 6,341 individuals aged 65 to 107 years without dementia from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a longitudinal study of adults aged 50 years and older. Participants completed measures of subjective age, cognitive complaints, and gait speed and provided information on demographic factors, cognition, physical activity, depressive symptoms, and body mass index (BMI) at baseline in 2008/2010. Incident MCR was assessed four and eight years later.

RESULTS: Controlling for demographic factors, an older subjective age was related to more than 60\% higher likelihood of MCR at baseline and to around 50\% higher risk of incident MCR over time. These associations remained significant when cognition, physical inactivity, depressive symptoms, and BMI were included in the analytic models.

CONCLUSION: This study provides evidence that how old individuals feel is related to concurrent and incident MCR beyond the effect of chronological age, other demographic factors, physical inactivity, depressive symptoms, BMI, and cognitive functioning.

}, keywords = {BMI, cognitive complaint, motoric cognitive risk, Subjective age, walking speed}, issn = {1758-5368}, doi = {10.1093/geronb/gbab047}, author = {Yannick Stephan and Angelina R Sutin and Canada, Brice and Antonio Terracciano} } @article {10702, title = {An examination of potential mediators of the relationship between polygenic scores of BMI and waist circumference and phenotypic adiposity}, journal = {Psychology \& Health}, year = {2020}, note = {PMID: 32275177}, type = {Journal}, abstract = {AbstractObjective: The present study examined whether physical activity, personality, cognition, education, and depressive symptoms mediate the association between polygenic scores (PGS) for body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference and the corresponding phenotypic adiposity measures.Design: Participants were 9,139 individuals aged 50 to 107 years (57\% women; Mean Age: 68.17, SD: 10.06) from the Health and Retirement Study who were genotyped. Trained staff measured their height, weight, and waist circumference, and participants answered questions on physical activity, personality, education, cognitive function, and depressive symptoms.Main Outcome Measures: BMI and waist circumference.Results: A higher PGS for both BMI and waist circumference were related to higher phenotypic BMI and waist circumference, respectively, in part through their association with lower physical activity, conscientiousness, education, and higher depressive symptoms but not cognition. The mediators accounted for 6.6\% of the association between PGS and BMI and 9.6\% of the association between PGS and waist circumference.Conclusion: The present study provides new evidence on the multiple, distinct pathways through which genetic propensity to higher BMI and waist circumference may lead to higher adiposity in adulthood. Individuals with a higher genetic predisposition to obesity may gain more weight through less adaptive behavioral, personality and educational profiles.}, keywords = {BMI, depression, Education, Personality, Physical activity, polygenic score, Waist Circumference}, doi = {10.1080/08870446.2020.1743839}, url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32275177}, author = {Yannick Stephan and Angelina R Sutin and Martina Luchetti and Pauline Caille and Antonio Terracciano} } @article {9622, title = {Facets of conscientiousness and objective markers of health status}, journal = {Psychology \& Health}, year = {2018}, month = {Feb-05-2018}, pages = {1 - 16}, abstract = {Objective: To examine the association between six facets of conscientiousness (self-control, order, industriousness, traditionalism, virtue, responsibility) and objective markers of health status, including adiposity, blood markers and physical performance. Design: Cross-sectional analysis of participants from the health and retirement study (N = 12,188). Main Outcome Measures: Adiposity (body mass index, waist circumference), blood markers (A1c, HDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, cystatin c, c-reactive protein) and physical performance (lung function, grip strength, walking speed). Results: Four of the six facets of conscientiousness were associated with nearly all of the health markers: Self-control, organisation, industriousness and responsibility were related to lower adiposity, healthier metabolic, cardiovascular and inflammatory markers, and better performance on physical assessments. Traditionalism and virtue had fewer associations with these objective markers. Conclusion: This research took a facet-level approach to the association between conscientiousness and objective markers of health status. This research builds on models of conscientiousness and health to suggest that, in addition to health-risk behaviours, facets of conscientiousness are associated with more favourable biomedical markers of health status. {\textcopyright} 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor \& Francis Group }, keywords = {Biomarkers, BMI, Conscientiousness, Physical Ability, Risk Taking}, issn = {0887-0446}, doi = {10.1080/08870446.2018.1464165}, url = {https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08870446.2018.1464165https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/08870446.2018.1464165}, author = {Angelina R Sutin and Yannick Stephan and Antonio Terracciano} } @article {9853, title = {Perceived weight discrimination and risk of incident dementia}, journal = {International Journal of Obesity}, year = {2018}, month = {Dec-09-2019}, abstract = {Body mass index (BMI) and obesity have a complex relation with risk of dementia that evolves over the lifespan. Research in other domains indicates that the social experience of body weight, not just BMI, is associated with worse health outcomes. The present research uses data from the Health and Retirement Study (N = 12,053) to test whether weight discrimination is associated with increased risk of dementia over an up to 10-year follow-up independent of BMI and other relevant clinical and behavioral risk factors. Participants who reported weight discrimination had a 40\% increased risk of incident dementia (Hazard Ratio = 1.40; 95\% Confidence Interval = 1.12{\textendash}1.74), controlling for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and education. The association between weight discrimination and incident dementia held controlling for BMI, diabetes, hypertension, depressive symptoms, smoking, physical activity, and genetic risk status. The present research indicates that the stigma associated with weight is associated with dementia risk independent from obesity. This research highlights that the detrimental effect of obesity on cognitive health in older adulthood may occur through the adverse social experience of body weight in addition to the biological consequences of excess weight. {\textcopyright} 2018, Springer Nature Limited. }, keywords = {BMI, Cognitive Ability, Dementia, Obesity, Stigma}, issn = {0307-0565}, doi = {10.1038/s41366-018-0211-1}, url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1http://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1.pdfhttp://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1.pdfhttp://www.nature.com/articles/s41366-018-0211-1}, author = {Angelina R Sutin and Yannick Stephan and Robinson, Eric and Daly, Michael and Antonio Terracciano} }