Abstract
Population aging is a global trend that has drawn attention to policies to encourage a productive life and delayed retirement. Thus, it is necessary to expand our understanding of the effects of work on health indicators and well-being in old age. The purpose of this study was to determine the association of permanency in the labor market with sociodemographic and medical factors and life satisfaction in elders. We used the database from Study FIBRA-RJ including elderly (aged > 65) clients of a private health care plan who resided in northern districts of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. Among the 626 participants, 82 (13,1%) maintained paid jobs. Multiple logistic regression showed that the odds of remaining working among the elderly were higher for men; and those with 9 years of studies or more, and those with high income; and those with no disabling clinical conditions and with higher satisfaction with life. This study confirms that work activities in old age are associated with better social and physical health conditions. Moreover, we observed that the maintenance of work activities was associated with higher life satisfaction, independent of socioeconomic and clinical characteristics in old age.
Highlights
Brazil suffers an accelerated process of population aging, stopping to be a country with a predominantly young population[1]
This maintenance of paid work among the elderly was associated with better physical health and greater life satisfaction in the old age
As for gender and age factors, Wajnman et al.[24] point out that men and women have, over the life cycle, behavior and roles very different, compared to the labor market, thereby they reach the old age with very different levels of activity
Summary
Brazil suffers an accelerated process of population aging, stopping to be a country with a predominantly young population[1]. The reduction of the working age population is one of the consequences of demographic transition and its social impact is strong enough to generate projections to start the contraction of this workforce to mid 20202 Parallel to this phenomenon, the increasing proportion of elderly in the labor market happens, leading researchers to question, in recent decades, if we are prepared to absorb the population group that intends to continue occupied until the last stage of life[3,4]. The occupation in old age seems to be associated with the need to maintain or improve the family income at this stage of life In this survey of IBGE, the main source of the elderly population income was the retirement or pension (67.6%), the work accounted for 28.3% of the income composition of this group[5]. Studies have found other factors that contribute to the maintenance of labor activities in old age; among them experiences of pleasure associated with the occupation, use of free time with physical and/or mentally stimulating activities; social recognition and conservation of social ties[7,8,9,10]
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