Extending Employment beyond the Pensionable Age: A Cohort Study of the Influence of Chronic Diseases, Health Risk Factors, and Working Conditions

Marianna Virtanen,Paula Salo,Jaana Pentti,Jussi Vahtera,Tuula Oksanen,Marko Elovainio,Mika Kivimäki,Leena Ala-Mursula,G David Batty,Katinka Lybäck

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088695

Abstract

BackgroundIn response to the economic consequences of ageing of the population, governments are seeking ways with which people might work into older age. We examined the association of working conditions and health with extended employment (defined as >6 months beyond the pensionable age) in a cohort of older, non-disabled employees who have reached old-age retirement.MethodsA total of 4,677 Finnish employees who reached their old-age pensionable date between 2005 and 2011 (mean age 59.8 years in 2005, 73% women) had their survey responses before pensionable age linked to national health and pension registers, resulting in a prospective cohort study.ResultsIn all, 832 participants (17.8%) extended their employment by more than 6 months beyond the pensionable date. After multivariable adjustment, the following factors were associated with extended employment: absence of diagnosed mental disorder (OR 1.25, 95% confidence interval = 1.01–1.54) and psychological distress (OR 1.68; 1.35–2.08) and of the work characteristics, high work time control (OR 2.31; 1.88–2.84). The projected probability of extended employment was 21.3% (19.5–23.1) among those free of psychiatric morbidity and with high work time control, while the corresponding probability was only 9.2% (7.4–11.4) among those with both psychiatric morbidity and poor work time control. The contribution of chronic somatic diseases was modest.ConclusionsIn the present study, good mental health in combination with the opportunity to control work time seem to be key factors in extended employment into older age. In addition, high work time control might promote work life participation irrespective of employees' somatic disease status.

Highlights

In most high-income countries, life expectancy is increasing alongside with low birth rates, which means that there are fewer workers in the labour market to cover increasing health care and social security costs [1,2]
Employees with higher pensionable age, men, those with no spouse, those with a higher socioeconomic status and those living in a rented apartment in the metropolitan area were more likely to extend their employment than others (Table S1 in File S1)
Having at least one diagnosed chronic disease was highly common (74.3%) and participants free of any of these conditions had a 1.34-fold probability of sustained employment

Summary

Introduction

In most high-income countries, life expectancy is increasing alongside with low birth rates, which means that there are fewer workers in the labour market to cover increasing health care and social security costs [1,2]. Low socioeconomic status, shift work, job dissatisfaction, and psychosocial stress at work have all been associated with intentions to retire early [10,11,12,13], early retirement [14,15,16,17,18,19], and work disability pensions [20,21,22,23] It remains unclear whether a beneficial status in these factors predicts retirement decisions among employees who continue working until the old-age retirement or beyond. We examined the association of working conditions and health with extended employment (defined as .6 months beyond the pensionable age) in a cohort of older, non-disabled employees who have reached old-age retirement

Methods

Results

Conclusion