Health status, retirement plans, and retirement. The Kaiser Permanente retirement study

The purpose of this study was to assess the stability of short-term plans to retire and to evaluate the role of self-reported health status in predicting both plans to retire and actual retirement from a sample of 1,165 older members of a prepayment, group practice model, health maintenance organization. The study sample was derived from a random sample of members 60 to 66 years of age. Mailed questionnaires were completed that obtained data on the following variables: self-reported health status, work status, demographic variables, and plans to retire in the next year. Telephone interviews were conducted throughout the study period to determine dates of retirement from both those who planned to retire and those who had not. Results indicated that retirement plans were relatively stable for this population. Logistic regression analyses revealed that poorer health status was related to both retirement plans and actual retirement for women but not for men.