Contributed by William Angelos| 21 October, 2005 15:04 GMT
Mortality was almost twice as high in the first 10 years of retirement for people who stopped working at age 55 than for those who continued working to 60 or 65, a recent study found.
It may seem as though ending the daily grind sooner rather than later would provide a health bonus, but the reverse may be true. Retiring early is not linked to longer life, according to new research published online in
BMJ.
Despite a widespread perception that early retirement is associated with longer life expectancy and later retirement is associated with early death, no consensus has been reached on the effect of early retirement on survival.
Survival Advantage to Later Retirees
The study involved more than 3,500 employees of the petrochemical industry in Texas who retired at 55, 60 and 65. Participants were monitored for up to 26 years to assess whether early retirement provided any survival advantage.
After adjusting for such factors as sex and socioeconomic status, the researchers found that employees who retired at 55 had a significantly increased mortality compared with those who retired at 65.
In fact, mortality was almost twice as high in the first 10 years for those who retired at 55 compared with those who continued working.
Employees who retired at 60 had similar survival rate as those who retired at 65.
Failing Health
Some workers retired at 55 due to failing health, the authors note. However, the study results clearly show that early retirement is not associated with increased survival, they conclude.
On the contrary, mortality improved with increasing age at retirement for people from both high and low socioeconomic groups. |
Home 
