Health and retirement: a complex relationship

Health and retirement are bi-directionally linked. Health is central to the timing of retirement, and retirement may have varying effects on health. Three studies of the special section of this issue add to the evidence about factors determining early retirement from three different perspectives. Blekesaune and Skirbekk investigated how personality factors were associated with non-disability and disability pension in Norway; Gørtz studied working conditions, health and early retirement in the day-care sector in Denmark; and Clarke et al. modelled trajectories of expectations not to retire early but to work full time after age 62 in a sample of older Americans as well as implications for health when such expectations were unmet. All studies incorporated health measures in the analyses. Nevertheless, health can have several roles in the retirement process. The complexity of the relationship of health and retirement is discussed in this commentary, several methodological issues are addressed and implications for future studies are identified.