Retirement as a Relief? The Role of Physical Job Demands and Psychological Job Stress for Effects of Retirement on Self-Rated Health

Abstract

-This study investigates the relationship between retirement and self-rated health, and how this relationship is moderated by experienced pre-retirement physical job 2 demands and psychological job stress. Two waves of Dutch panel data are analyzed, collected between 2003 and 2007, which include information on 819 people who retired between waves and 636 people who remained in employment. It is argued that on the one hand, the time that comes available after retirement is beneficial to health, while on the other hand retirement can represent a relief from demanding work. Conditional change ordered logistic analyses show that indeed, retirement is beneficial for health, but this is largely relative to those who stay in employment, who experience a decline in health. Further, the largest health gains are for those with psychologically stressful jobs. No such support is found for physically demanding jobs. Strengths, limitations, and implications of the study are discussed.

Mental Health Before and After Retirement—Assessing the Relevance of Psychosocial Working Conditions: The Whitehall II Prospective Study of British Civil Servants

“…Even though it is selective, it generally is a good representation of the potential variability in the population with white-collar jobs. Moreover, our results were consistent with other studies investigating working conditions as potential moderators from the Netherlands ( van den Bogaard et al, 2016 ) and France on general health ( Westerlund et al, 2009 ) and the United States for mental health ( Wheaton, 1990 ).…”

“…Retiring from a stressful or “alienating” job was argued to be a greater relief for individuals ( Drentea, 2002 ; Olesen et al, 2015 ; Oshio & Kan, 2017 ; Stenholm & Vahtera, 2017 ; van Zon et al, 2016 ). Previous studies have reported similar associations: Retirement was found to decrease distress symptoms specifically among workers from high stress jobs ( Wheaton, 1990 ), and self-rated health improved more when retiring from a poor working environment ( van den Bogaard et al, 2016 ; Westerlund et al, 2009 ). For skill discretion, we found that those with lower levels had on average worse mental health, but we did not find, like for the other working conditions, that individuals retiring from jobs with worse conditions, that is, lower skill discretion, had more pronounced improvements in their mental health.…”

“… Wheaton (1990) reports that retirement from a low stress job resulted in an increase of distress symptoms after retirement, whereas retirement from high stress job resulted in a decrease of these symptoms. Moreover, both Westerlund et al (2009) and Van den Bogaard et al (2016) showed that a poor working environment before retirement, expressed by low occupational grade, high job demands, and low satisfaction as well as job stress, respectively, was associated with steeper retirement-related improvement in self-rated health.…”

“…Most studies have shown positive associations between retirement and mental health ( Airagnes et al, 2015 ; Butterworth et al, 2006 ; Drentea, 2002 ; Jokela et al, 2010 ; Mandal & Roe, 2008 ; Mänty et al, 2018 ; Mein, Martikainen, Hemingway, Stansfeld, & Marmot, 2003 ; Nuttman-Shwartz, 2004 ; Oksanen & Virtanen, 2012 ; Olesen, Rod, Madsen, Bonde, & Rugulies, 2015 ; Reitzes, Mutran, & Fernandez, 1996 ; Westerlund et al, 2010 ), but some have also found negative ( Dave, Rashad, & Spasojevic, 2008 ; Heller-Sahlgren, 2017 ; Hyde, Ferrie, Higgs, Mein, & Nazroo, 2004 ; Wheaton, 1990 ) or no associations at all ( Coe & Zamarro, 2011 ; Horner & Cullen, 2016 ; Laaksonen et al, 2012 ; Mojon-Azzi, Souza-Poza, & Widmer, 2007 ; Yeung, 2013 ). Retirement has also been associated with physical health functioning, physical (dis)abilities and (chronic) illnesses ( Gall, Evans, & Howard, 1997 ; Hessel, 2016 ; Seitsamo & Klockars, 1997 ; van Zon, Bültmann, Reijneveld, & de Leon, 2016 ), and self-rated general health ( Rijs, Cozijnsen, & Deeg, 2011 ; Seitsamo & Klockars, 1997 ; van den Bogaard, Henkens, & Kalmijn, 2016 ; van Solinge, 2007 ; Westerlund et al, 2009 ), with mixed evidence.…”

The experience of the transition to retirement: Rapid evidence review

“…However, there are some who feel that these new patterns of late life working and retirement may bring with them financial, health and social risks, as well as opportunities (Di Gessa, Corna et al 2016). Previous research suggests that retirement from work can have a positive impact on psychological health and wellbeing (van der Heide et al), especially for those with the least advantageous working conditions (Westerlund, Kivimaki et al 2009, van den Bogaard, Henkens et al 2016, van den Bogaard and Henkens 2018.…”