Background:While many studies have shown associations between obesity and increased risk of morbidity and mortality, little comparable information is available on how body mass index (BMI) impacts health expectancy. We examined associations of BMI with healthy and chronic disease-free life expectancy in four European cohort studies.Methods:Data were drawn from repeated waves of cohort studies in England, Finland, France and Sweden. BMI was categorized into four groups from normal weight (18.5–24.9 kg m−2) to obesity class II (⩾35 kg m−2). Health expectancy was estimated with two health indicators: sub-optimal self-rated health and having a chronic disease (cardiovascular disease, cancer, respiratory disease and diabetes). Multistate life table models were used to estimate sex-specific healthy life expectancy and chronic disease-free life expectancy from ages 50 to 75 years for each BMI category.Results:The proportion of life spent in good perceived health between ages 50 and 75 progressively decreased with increasing BMI from 81% in normal weight men and women to 53% in men and women with class II obesity which corresponds to an average 7-year difference in absolute terms. The proportion of life between ages 50 and 75 years without chronic diseases decreased from 62 and 65% in normal weight men and women and to 29 and 36% in men and women with class II obesity, respectively. This corresponds to an average 9 more years without chronic diseases in normal weight men and 7 more years in normal weight women between ages 50 and 75 years compared to class II obese men and women. No consistent differences were observed between cohorts.Conclusions:Excess BMI is associated with substantially shorter healthy and chronic disease-free life expectancy, suggesting that tackling obesity would increase years lived in good health in populations.

BackgroundGiven the current policy emphasis in many Western societies on extending working lives, we investigated the health effects of being in paid work beyond state pension age (SPA). Until now, work has largely focused on the health of those who exit the labour force early.MethodsOur data come from waves 2–4 of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing, including the life history interview at wave 3. Using logistic and linear regression models, we assessed the longitudinal associations between being in paid work beyond SPA and 3 measures of health (depression, a latent measure of somatic health and sleep disturbance) among men aged 65–74 and women aged 60–69. Our analyses controlled for baseline health and socioeconomic characteristics, as well as for work histories and health in adulthood and childhood.ResultsApproximately a quarter of women and 15% of men were in paid work beyond SPA. Descriptive bivariate analyses suggested that men and women in paid work were more likely to report better health at follow-up. However, once baseline socioeconomic characteristics as well as adulthood and baseline health and labour market histories were accounted for, the health benefits of working beyond SPA were no longer significant.ConclusionsPotential health benefits of working beyond SPA need to be considered in the light of the fact that those who report good health and are more socioeconomically advantaged are more likely to be working beyond SPA to begin with.

Despite the complexity of the retirement process, most research treats it as an abrupt and one-way transition. Our study takes a different approach by examining retirement reversals (unretirement) and their predictors. Using the British Household Panel Survey (1991–2008), and following participants into Understanding Society (2010–2015), we undertake a survival analysis to investigate retirement reversals among Britons aged 50–69 years who were born in 1920–1959 (N = 2,046). Unretirement was defined as: (a) reporting being retired and subsequently recommencing paid employment, or (b) beginning full-time work following partial retirement (the latter defined here as reporting being retired and working fewer than 30 hours per week). A cumulative proportion of around 25 per cent of participants experienced a retirement reversal after reporting being retired; about half of these reversals occurred within the first five years of retirement. Unretirement was more common for participants who were male, more educated, in better health, owned a house with a mortgage (compared to owning it outright) and whose partner was in paid work. However, unretirement rates were not higher for participants in greater financial need, whether measured as subjective assessment of finances or household income quintiles. These results suggest that unretirement is a strategy more often used by those who are already advantaged and that it has the potential to exacerbate income inequalities in later life.

Summary Work stress and poor sleep are closely related in cross‐sectional data, but evidence from prospective data is limited. We analysed how perceived stress and work stressors (work demands, decision authority and workplace social support) are related to key dimensions of insomnia over time, using structural equation modelling. Biennial measurements from a large sample of the working population in Sweden enabled us to analyse both the relationship from stress to sleep as well as that from sleep to stress. Overall, we found reciprocal relations between insomnia and all four stress measures. However, looking at the relation between each dimension of insomnia and each stress measure, there were some differences in direction of effects. In the direction from stress to sleep, all work stressors as well as perceived stress predicted both difficulties initiating sleep and difficulties maintaining sleep. The same was found for non‐restorative sleep, with the exception for decision authority. In the opposite direction, difficulties maintaining sleep predicted increased levels of work demands and perceived stress. Difficulties initiating sleep stood out among the insomnia symptoms as not predicting any of the stress measures, while non‐restorative sleep was the only symptom predicting all stress measures. The results advance the understanding of the stress−sleep relationship and indicate a potential vicious circle between insomnia and perceived stress as well as work stressors, suggesting that the workplace could be an arena for interventions to alleviate insomnia.

This study investigates the joint effect of office type (cell, shared room, open-plan, and flex) and personality, measured by the Big Five personality traits, on self-rated measures of distraction, job satisfaction, and job performance (measured by professional efficacy). Regression analyses with interactions between personality and office type were conducted on 1205 participants working in 5 organizations from both the private and public sectors. While few interactions were observed in the cases of professional efficacy and job satisfaction, several were observed between personality traits and office type on the level of distraction reported. Specifically, more emotionally stable participants reported lower distraction, particularly those working in flex offices. Both agreeableness and openness to experience were associated with higher levels of distraction among participants in open-plan compared to cell offices.

Several strands of research indicate that work competes for time with sleep, butto what extent the timing and duration of sleep is affected by work is not known.Retirement offers a quasi-experimental life transition to study this in a within-individual study design. The few existing studies report that people sleep longer and later after retirement but mainly rely on self-reported data or between-individual analyses.We recruited 100 participants aged 61-72 years who were in paid work but would soon retire and measured them in a baseline week with accelerometers, diaries and questionnaires. After 1 and 2 years, the measurements were repeated for the now retired participants. Changes in sleep duration, timing, efficiency, chronotype and social jetlag were analysed using multilevel modelling. Gender, chronotype at baseline and partner's working status were analysed as potential effect modifiers. Sleep duration increased by 21 min, whereas sleep efficiency remained similar. Time of sleep onset and final awakening were postponed by 26 and 52 min, respectively, pushing midsleep forward from 03:17 to 03:37 hours. Changes in duration and timing of sleep were driven by weekday sleep, whereas weekend sleep stayed about the same. Social jetlag decreased but still occurred after retirement. Changes at retirement in sleep duration and timing were smaller for participants with a later chronotype and who had full-time working partners. These findings indicate that paid work generates sleep loss and hinders people from sleeping in line with their biological time.

Objectives: This article aims to contribute to the literature on life course influences upon quality of life by examining pathways linking social position in middle age to quality of life following retirement in French men and women. Method: Data are from the GAZEL cohort study of employees at the French national gas and electricity company. A finely grained measure of occupational grade in 1989 was obtained from company records. Annual self-completion questionnaires provided information on quality of life in 2005, measured with the CASP-19 scale, and on participants’ recent circumstances 2002–2005: mental health, physical functioning, wealth, social status, neighbourhood characteristics, social support and social participation. Path analysis using full information maximum likelihood estimation was performed on 11,293 retired participants. Results: Higher occupational grade in 1989 was associated, in a graded relationship, with better quality of life 16 years later. This association was accounted for by individuals’ more recent circumstances, particularly their social status, mental health, physical functioning and wealth. Conclusion: The graded relationship between occupational grade in mid-life and quality of life after labour market exit was largely accounted for by more recent socio-economic circumstances and state of health. The results support a pathway model for the development of social disparities in quality of life, in which earlier social position shapes individual circumstances in later life.

BackgroundSocial and policy changes in the last several decades have increased women’s options for combining paid work with family care. We explored whether specific combinations of work and family care over the lifecourse are associated with variations in women’s later life health. MethodsWe used sequence analysis to group women in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing according to their work histories and fertility. Using logistic regression, we tested for group differences in later life disability, depressive symptomology and mortality, while controlling for childhood health and socioeconomic position and a range of adult socio-economic circumstances and health behaviours. ResultsWomen who transitioned from family care to either part-time work after a short break from the labour force, or to full-time work, reported lower odds of having a disability compared with the reference group of women with children who were mostly employed full-time throughout. Women who shifted from family care to part-time work after a long career break had lower odds of mortality than the reference group. Depressive symptoms were not associated with women’s work and family care histories. ConclusionWomen’s work histories are predictive of their later life disability and mortality. This relationship may be useful in targeting interventions aimed at improving later life health. Further research is necessary to explore the mechanisms linking certain work histories to poorer later life health and to design interventions for those affected.