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Long-term health impacts of forced early retirement among steelworkers
W R Gillanders1, T F Buss, E Wingard
1Family Health Center, St Elizabeth Hospital Medical Center, Youngstown, OH 44501-1790.
Background:
Previous studies of the health impacts of retirement have not investigated the effects of forced early retirement following plant closings.
Methods:
Using a geriatric database representative of elderly people, the health impacts on employees forced to take early retirement from steel mills in the Youngstown, Ohio, area were assessed. A study group of forced early retirees was compared with two control groups: (1) regular steel industry retirees, and (2) regular retirees from jobs outside the steel industry. Utilizing multivariate analysis techniques, the effects of retirement on a number of different health measures were isolated.
Results:
Over the long term, the health of forced retirees does not seem adversely affected by sudden job loss and unexpected retirement, at least in the steel industry.
Conclusions:
Continuity theories of retirement--that workers do not experience abrupt catastrophic changes in lifestyle and in health--best explain the lack of negative health impacts.