Abstract
Older workers experiencing chronic health conditions (CHCs) are more likely to retire early. Current literature, however, lacks knowledge on the different pathways through which CHCs stimulate retirement preference. Earlier research is highly fragmented. Some studies have found CHCs to impact vitality, work limitations, or subjective life expectancy. Others have found vitality, work limitations, or subjective life expectancy to predict retirement preferences. We present a comprehensive model in which we hypothesize that the effects of four CHCs - arthritis, cardiovascular disease, sleep disorders, and psychological disorders - on retirement preferences are differentially mediated by vitality, health-related work limitations, and subjective life expectancy. We analyzed data from 6,294 older workers (60 – 65 years) in the Netherlands. Effects of CHCs on older workers’ retirement preferences were mediated by vitality, health-related work limitations, and subjective life expectancy. The main mediation pathway differed for each CHC. Severe health-related work limitations among older workers with arthritis (65.6% mediated) and cardiovascular disease (44.0%) predominantly guided their retirement preferences. Lower vitality levels mainly mediated retirement preferences of older workers with sleep (59.1%) and psychological disorders (52.9%). Lower subjective life expectancy was a significant mediation pathway (13.7%) for older workers with cardiovascular diseases. Extending working lives is a key public health and policy challenge. We show that health-related work limitations and vitality play a major role in determining retirement preferences of older workers experiencing CHCs. Since both mediators are modifiable, targeted interventions may not only extend the working lives of older workers, but also improve its quality.
Highlights
The transition from work to retirement is an exceedingly complex process that occurs through various pathways [1]
All four chronic health conditions (CHCs) were associated with lower subjective life expectancy (SLE), the association is most pronounced for older workers with cardiovascular disease (Cohen’s d = −0.31, CI = −0.39 to −0.23)
This study investigated the different pathways through which CHCs influence retirement preferences using data from 5,696 Dutch older workers in pre-retirement age
Summary
The transition from work to retirement is an exceedingly complex process that occurs through various pathways [1]. Several studies reveal that chronic health conditions (CHCs) are associated with a stronger preference for retirement and a higher likelihood of early retirement [6, 7], with some studies explicitly demonstrating the effects of depression [8], musculoskeletal conditions [9] and diabetes [10] on retirement behaviour. This study aims to explain why older workers with CHCs prefer to retire early by analysing the pathways through which this occurs (Figure 1). We hypothesize that: (i) the four CHCs will influence early retirement preferences through separate pathways mediated by three health-related factors—subjective life expectancy (SLE), perceived healthrelated work limitations (HRWL) and vitality and (ii) the relative contribution of each mediator will differ depending on which of the four CHCs the older worker experiences
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