Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: Personality Associations With Self-Report, Performance, and Awareness of Functional Difficulties

Abstract

Self-reports of the ability to engage in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) among older adults are known to be related to personality traits. However, self-reports are sometimes discrepant with performance-based IADL assessments, and little is known about personality associations with objective functionality or with poor insight about functional deficits. This study examined the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised profiles associated with (a) self-report of functional problems, (b) functional errors evidenced on performance-based IADL assessment, and (c) discrepancies between self-report and performance. Participants were 65 community-dwelling individuals ranging in age from 60 to 87 years. The results showed that self-report of IADL problems are associated with higher neuroticism and lower conscientiousness, actual IADL difficulties with higher neuroticism and lower agreeableness and openness to experience, underreporting of problems with higher conscientiousness, and overreporting of problems with higher extraversion and neuroticism. These relationships were partly mediated by age, education, and cognitive status. When unique personality associations with self-report and performance were examined, neuroticism and agreeableness, respectively, emerged as the strongest predictors.

Personality and frailty: Evidence from four samples

“…This finding is consistent with other evidence for links between a vulnerable personality profile and worse health in old age (Suchy et al, 2010; Weston et al, 2015) and extends previous studies that found associations with physical limitations, disability and lower energy among older adults (Canada et al, 2016; Krueger et al, 2006; Terracciano et al, 2013). The relation between personality traits and frailty may reflect a lifetime of health-damaging behaviors associated with these traits, such as smoking and physical inactivity (Hakulinen et al, 2015; Rhodes & Smith, 2006; Sutin et al, 2016).…”

“…Among these traits, high neuroticism and low conscientiousness have been robustly related to vulnerability to age-related declines in health (Canada, Stephan, Jaconelli, & Duberstein, 2016; Chapman, Duberstein, & Lyness, 2007; Suchy, Williams, Kraybill, Franchow, & Butner, 2010; Terracciano, Stephan, Luchetti, Gonzalez-Rothi, & Sutin, in press). Individuals with this personality profile have more functional limitations and steeper declines in physical functioning in old age (Canada et al, 2016 ; Krueger, Wilson, Shah, Tang, & Bennett, 2006 ; Terracciano et al, in press) and have less energy (Terracciano et al, 2013).…”

Effect of Occupation- and Activity-Based Interventions on Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Performance Among Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Systematic Review

“…An important public health goal for this population is maintaining their capacity to live independently and to function well (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). The extent to which a person can continue to live independently depends largely on his or her ability to perform IADLs (Baker, 2005; Suchy, Williams, Kraybill, Franchow, & Butner, 2010). Limitations in IADLs are known to exist as a result of various neurodegenerative diseases; healthy community-dwelling older adults also exhibit considerable variability in their IADL skills (Burton, Strauss, Hultsch, & Hunter, 2006).…”

Executive Functioning, Motor Programming, and Functional Independence: Accounting for Variance, People, and Time

“…Such lapses, even if mild or infrequent, can lead to serious consequences, such as devastating errors in medication use or irreparably damaging financial decisions. Unfortunately, self-reported or informant-based measures of daily functional independence provide subjective information that is not always consistent with actual abilities Suchy, Williams, Kraybill, Franchow, & Butner, 2010) and performance-based measures, while more objective,…”

“…Such lapses, even if mild or infrequent, can lead to serious consequences, such as devastating errors in medication use or irreparably damaging financial decisions. Unfortunately, self-reported or informant-based measures of daily functional independence provide subjective information that is not always consistent with actual abilities Suchy, Williams, Kraybill, Franchow, & Butner, 2010) and performance-based measures, while more objective, are cumbersome (requiring props) and time-consuming to administer. For these reasons, efforts to identify neurocognitive correlates of early or incipient declines in functional independence represent an important topic of research in clinical neuropsychology and gerontology alike.…”