Abstract
BackgroundDue to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives. In the Netherlands, many employees still leave the workforce before the official retirement age of 65. Previous quantitative research showed that poor self-perceived health is a risk factor of (non-disability) early retirement. However, little is known on how poor health may lead to early retirement, and why poor health leads to early retirement in some employees, but not in others. Therefore, the present qualitative study aims to identify in which ways health influences early retirement.MethodsFace-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 employees (60–64 years) who retired before the official retirement age of 65. Participants were selected from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, a summary was made including a timeline, and the interviews were open coded.ResultsIn 15 of the 30 persons, health played a role in early retirement. Both poor and good health influenced early retirement. For poor health, four pathways were identified. First, employees felt unable to work at all due to health problems. Second, health problems resulted in a self-perceived (future) decline in the ability to work, and employees chose to retire early. Third, employees with health problems were afraid of a further decline in health, and chose to retire early. Fourth, employees with poor health retired early because they felt pushed out by their employer, although they themselves did not experience a reduced work ability. A good health influenced early retirement, since persons wanted to enjoy life while their health still allowed to do so. The financial opportunity to retire sometimes triggered the influence of poor health on early retirement, and often triggered the influence of good health. Employees and employers barely discussed opportunities to prolong working life.ConclusionsPoor and good health influence early retirement via several different pathways. To prolong working life, a dialogue between employers and employees and tailored work-related interventions may be helpful.
Highlights
Due to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives
Previous research on work disability pensions showed that workers with specific diseases, such as depression [3], rheumatoid arthritis [4], diabetes [5], or cancer [6] have a higher risk of an early exit from the work force due to work disability
In total 15 of the 30 participants mentioned that their own health played a role in early retirement
Summary
Due to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives. A recent review study showed that poor perceived health is a risk factor of early retirement without compensated work disability [7], though the association is less strong than with disability de Wind et al BMC Public Health 2013, 13:292 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/292 pensions [8]. In this review moderately increased risks of early retirement were found in four of the six studies that were included (OR/HR/RR 1.28 to 1.86), a high risk was found in one study (OR 3.36) and no significant relation between health and early retirement was found in another study The differences between these studies might be explained by the fact that poor perceived health may result in early retirement in some employees or circumstances, but not in others
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