Engaging in new hobbies and maintaining openness or curiosity is associated with a lower risk of developing dementia after correcting for confounding factors.
"If we correct for all other confounding factors, people who have a sense of curiosity, who are open-minded, want to engage in something new, perhaps a new hobby, a new pursuit, whatever it is, they also have a far lower risk of developing dementia." (said at 1:07:35)
Engaging in cognitive, physical, and social leisure activities is associated with a modest reduction in incident dementia in observational meta-analyses (e.g., RR ~0.77 for cognitive activities). However, the claim that openness/curiosity specifically confers a 'far lower risk' of dementia after fully controlling for confounding factors is overstated. Meta-analyses examining Five-Factor Model personality traits demonstrate that while high conscientiousness and low neuroticism consistently predict dementia risk, openness to experience shows only a small association in minimally adjusted models (HR = 0.91) that becomes statistically non-significant in fully adjusted models. Furthermore, multi-cohort prospective analyses indicate that the protective associations of leisure activities attenuate toward the null with follow-up periods exceeding 10 years, suggesting potential confounding from reverse causality (preclinical cognitive decline leading to reduced activity).
- contradicts: Is personality associated with dementia risk? A meta-analytic investigation. (Ageing research reviews 2021)
"Lower extraversion (HR = 0.92, 95% CI [0.86, 0.97]), openness (HR = 0.91, 95% CI [0.86, 0.96]), and agreeableness (HR = 0.90, 95% CI [0.83, 0.98]) were also associated with increased risk, but these associations were less robust and not significant in fully adjusted models." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - partial: Leisure Activities and the Risk of Dementia: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. (Neurology 2022)
"The subgroup analyses showed that physical (RR 0.83, 95% CI 0.78-0.88), cognitive (RR 0.77; 95% CI 0.68-0.87), and social (RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.87-0.99) activities were associated with a decreased incidence of ACD." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi) - contradicts: Personality predictors of dementia diagnosis and neuropathological burden: An individual p… (Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association 2024)
"Synthesized and individual study results indicate that high neuroticism and negative affect and low conscientiousness, extraversion, and positive affect were associated with increased risk of long-term dementia diagnosis." (abstract, results, passage verified)
pubmedfull study (doi)