Work-related factors and early retirement intention: a study of the Danish eldercare sector

Western countries are experiencing an ageing and shrinking workforce in the eldercare sector. This study investigated whether 12 different work-related factors are associated with early retirement intentions of employees in the Danish eldercare sector. We tested whether three hypotheses explained the increase of early retirement intention: (i) high job demands (four factors) and low resources (four factors); (ii) low job attitude (three factors); and (iii) high physical strain (one factor).

We included 2444 employees (aged 45-57 years) from two waves (T1 and T2) from a prospective study. Multinomial logistic regression models showed whether 12 work-related factors (T1) were associated with early retirement intention (T2); very early retirement intention and early retirement intention vs. normal retirement intention.

Only 14% of the participants wished to retire at the normal retirement age (65 years or older). High physical strain [hypothesis (iii)] and low and normal affective organizational commitment [hypothesis (ii)] were associated with very early retirement intention. None of the other work-related factors associated with early retirement intention.

Future interventions should focus on reducing physical strain and increase or maintain affective organizational commitment among employees in the eldercare sector to postpone retirement.