Abstract
BackgroundSeveral studies regarding the effect of retirement on physical as well as mental health have been performed, but the results thereof remain inconclusive. The aim of this review is to systematically summarise the literature on the health effects of retirement, describing differences in terms of voluntary, involuntary and regulatory retirement and between blue-collar and white-collar workers.MethodsA search for longitudinal studies using keywords that referred to the exposure (retirement), outcome (health-related) and study design (longitudinal) was performed using several electronic databases. Articles were then selected for full text analysis and the reference lists of the selected studies were checked for relevant studies. The quality of the studies was rated based on predefined criteria. Data was analysed qualitatively by using a best evidence synthesis. When possible, pooled mean differences and effect sizes were calculated to estimate the effect of retirement on health.ResultsTwenty-two longitudinal studies were included, of which eleven were deemed to be of high quality. Strong evidence was found for retirement having a beneficial effect on mental health, and contradictory evidence was found for retirement having an effect on perceived general health and physical health. Few studies examined the differences between blue- and white-collar workers and between voluntary, involuntary and regulatory retirement with regards to the effect of retirement on health outcomes.ConclusionsMore longitudinal research on the health effects of retirement is needed, including research into potentially influencing factors such as work characteristics and the characteristics of retirement.
Highlights
Several studies regarding the effect of retirement on physical as well as mental health have been performed, but the results thereof remain inconclusive
Because of the great diversity of confounders that had already been taken into account by the included studies, it was not feasible for the present study to examine the effect of confounders on the health effects of retirement
The health outcomes were most often assessed by self-reports (n = 17) and included perceived general health (n = 10) [9,15,21,23,26,28,29,30,31,32]/[11,17,23,28,31,32,33,34,35], mental health (n = 12) [16,23,24,25,26,27,28,31,36,37,38] and physical health (n = 12) [16,26,27,28,29,30,31,32,34,39,40,41]
Summary
Several studies regarding the effect of retirement on physical as well as mental health have been performed, but the results thereof remain inconclusive. Based on Feldman’s often-cited definition [5], the present study defines retirement as ‘the exit from labour force, taken by individuals after middle age, and taken with the intention of reduced psychological commitment to work thereafter’. This definition does not explicitly incorporate the range of retirement forms which include voluntary retirement, involuntary retirement and regulatory retirement. Some workers are forced to retire because of corporate reorganisations or due to health reasons, for example [8] This type of retirement is often referred to as involuntary retirement and can be expected to cause more stress than voluntary retirement, as workers have less control over the situation. With all types of retirement, the national economic situation and the availability of pension-like social benefits can influence the meaning and consequences of retirement [9]
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