Retirement reconceptualized
Subtitle: forced retirement and its relationship to health.
Published: 2006
Language: eng
Number of pages: 397
ISBN-13: 9780494160497
Description: Given the growing trend toward involuntary or forced retirement, there is a need to more fully understand the relationship between health (both physical and mental) and forced retirement. This study examined the relationship between forced retirement and subsequent physical and mental health, examining the characteristics that increase an individual's risk for forced retirement.The bivariate analyses revealed that forced retirees were socially and economically disadvantaged in comparison to those not forced to retire on a number of variables: they had lower educational attainment, fewer financial resources, more likely to be immigrants, were less likely to have health insurance, were concentrated in industries where job loss was the greatest, reported lower levels of satisfaction in retirement, and were disadvantaged on most measures of health, both physical and mental. The effects of forced retirement on both physical functioning and mental health were negative and statistically significant (p&lt;.05), even after baseline health status, sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors were controlled for.Bivariate analysis compared forced and non-forced retirees on a whole range of demographic, employment, financial, retirement and health variables. Multivariate regression models were estimated to assess the impact of forced retirement on both physical functioning and mental health.The findings provide evidence of a causal relationship between being forced to retire and poor health outcomes. This relationship is reflected in poorer physical functioning, poorer self-rated health, decreased mobility and poorer mental health for older adults who experience forced retirement. In addition to the economic consequences of forced retirement, there may be important health consequences as well.This study used secondary panel data from the first 3 Waves (1992, 1994, and 1996) of the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), a national, longitudinal, US survey. The HRS data files were used as they were designed to investigate the experiences of older workers and retirees with particular emphasis on health and economic outcomes. The analysis sample included 1069 individuals who indicated they were working at Wave 1 (1992) and retired at Wave 3 (1996), including 308 individuals who were forced to retire and a comparison group of 761 individuals who were not forced to retire.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2750.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2006.

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