Conclusions: Retirement appears not to change the risk of major chronic diseases, but it is associated with a substantial reduction in mental and physical fatigue and depressive symptoms, particularly among participants with chronic disease. Future research should investigate the generalisability of the findings to other countries and settings, examine the consequences of fatigue among older workers, as well as explore various possible determinants of such fatigue. Background: Retirement is a major social transition believed to have important consequences for health, but empirical evidence remains contradictory. The effects of retirement on the risk of specific diseases with major public health importance are unknown. Because poor adherence to treatment can increase the risk of severe medical complications, we examined if retirement is followed by a change in the use of antihypertensive medication among individuals with chronic hypertension. Methods: We linked an occupational cohort of 1820 retired employees in Finland (71% women) entitled to special reimbursement due to chronic hypertension before retirement to national health and prescription registers. The prescription register contains data on the exact dates and defined daily dosages of every purchase of prescription drugs. Annual use of antihypertensive medication was measured for each year during a period covering 4 years before and 4 years after the year of retirement. Results: Repeated-measures showed that adherence was significantly better in the years after retirement compared to the years before retirement. The ratio of mean number of days not covered by purchased prescribed drugs in the four years following, compared with the four years preceding, retirement was 0.74 (95% CI 0.67-0.81) after adjustment for sex, age at retirement, occupational status and year of retirement. This improvement in adherence was observed in both sexes, in all occupational grades and irrespective of type of retirement. However, the improvement in adherence following retirement was significantly greater among employees with high job strain before retirement compared to the others: the mean ratio of days not covered by prescribed drugs in the post-retirement years compared to the pre-retirement years 0.58 (95% CI 0.47-0.70) in the high strain group and 0.78 (95% CI 0.71-0.87) in the low strain group (test of interaction, p= 0.0004). Further adjustments for baseline health indicators had little effect on these associations. Conclusions: Repeated measurements provide evidence for a substantial and sustained increase in adherence to medical treatment among individuals with chronic hypertension following retirement. Poor adherence before retirement is more common among individuals exposed to high work stress. Because inadequate treatment of chronic hypertension increases the risk of severe medical complications, our findings suggest that the retirement-related relief of work-stress may decrease the risk of complications in high-risk populations. Background: Previous studies show a remarkably persistent association between sickness absence and future long-term selfrated health status for the majority of diagnostic categories for sickness absence but it is unclear whether this association differs by socioeconomic position. Methods. Prospective occupational cohort of 15,320 employees (73% men) aged 37 to 51, of whom 30% were in higher, 55% intermediate, and 15% in the lower occupational grades. Sickness absence records 1990-1992, including 13 diagnostic categories, were examined in relation to self-rated health measured annually for the years 1993-2006. Results: Among higher grade employees 9.5% had >30 days of sickness during the 3-year exposure window. The corresponding figure among intermediate and lower grade employees was 24% and 40%, respectively. Repeated-measures logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, sex, and chronic diseases showed higher, intermediate, and lower grade employees with >30 absence days, compared to those with no absences, to have 2.22 (95% CI 1.90-2.60), 2.13 (95% CI 1.95-2.33), and 1.86 (95% CI 1.58-2.20) times higher odds of suboptimal health over the 14 years of follow-up, respectively. Most of the 13 sickness absence diagnos-tic categories independently predicted an increased risk of sustained sub-optimal health in higher and intermediate grades.