Does postponing retirement affect cognitive function? A counterfactual experiment to disentangle life course risk...

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Sociology of Aging

Background:

• Labor force participation is linked to cognitive function, but the causal relationship is debated.
• It remains unclear if employment itself or individual factors influence cognitive decline protection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To disentangle the effect of postponing retirement on cognitive function from other life-course factors.
• To investigate if gender, education, or occupation modify the cognitive benefits of delayed retirement.
• To explore if retirement impacts cognitive function via depressive symptoms or comorbidities.

Main Methods:

• Utilized counterfactual causal inference and the parametric g-formula.
• Analyzed data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (1996-2014, n=20,469).
• Estimated the effect of postponing retirement to age 67 on cognitive function.

Main Results:

• Postponing retirement demonstrated a protective effect against cognitive decline (population: 0.34, 95% CI: 0.20,0.47; individual: 0.43, 95% CI: 0.26,0.60).
• The protective effect varied by subgroup, with the highest educated individuals showing the greatest mitigation of cognitive decline (individual: 50%, 95% CI: 32%,71%).

Conclusions:

• Postponing retirement is a significant factor in mitigating cognitive decline.
• Educational attainment plays a crucial role in the cognitive benefits derived from continued employment.
• Innovative causal inference models enhance understanding of retirement's impact on cognitive health over the life course.