Change in Self-Reported Health with Retirement

Abstract

Despite evidence to the contrary, the idea that retirement harms health continues to have wide credibility. This article examines the possibility that retirement contributed to decline in self-reported health among a panel of 112 men who retired between baseline measurement in 1975 and follow-up measurement in 1978. Within-individual changes in self-reported health for these retirees were compared with changes among 386 age peers (fifty-six to sixty-seven at follow-up) who continued to work from T₁to T₂. For all men working and in favorable health at T₁, eventual retirees had no greater age-adjusted incidence of health decline than did continuing workers. Moreover, when retirees were asked directly whether retiring had affected their health, only 2 per cent claimed a “bad” effect. Collating our findings with previous evidence, we concluded that retirement-related changes for the worse in self-perceived health were infrequent events.