Participants were drawn from the SardiNIA project, a large, on-going multidisciplinary study of the genetic and environmental basis of complex traits and age-related processes (Pilia et al. 2006). Approximately 62% of the population (N = 6,148 individuals; 56.7% female), aged 14 to 102 years, from a cluster of four towns in the Lanusei Valley enrolled in the study. This founder population was chosen for the larger project because such populations tend to have greater genetic and environmental homogeneity than more diverse populations. The current study includes a total of 4,923 participants (57% female) who completed the self-report personality questionnaire and were assessed for IL-6. Age ranged from 14 to 82 (M = 39.31; SD = 14.72).
