Heterogeneous associations of retirement with health and behaviors: a longitudinal study in 35 countries

Many developed countries are raising their state pension age (SPA), thereby delaying retirement. However, existing evidence on the impact of retirement on health yields inconsistent results. This study aims to explore heterogeneous associations of retirement with health and behaviors using harmonized datasets of the Health and Retirement Study and its sister surveys in 35 countries. The data comprises 396 904 observations from 106 927 individuals aged 50-70 years. On average, participants were followed up for 6.7 years, and 50.5% of them consisted of men. This study employed the SPA of each country as an instrument for retirement and performed fixed-effects instrumental variable (IV) regression. Among women, retirement was associated with a 0.100 SD increase in cognitive function and a 3.8%-point increase in physical independence. In both genders, retirement was associated with increased self-rated health, with women indicating a larger point estimate than men. Additionally, retirement was associated with a 4.3%-point decrease in physical inactivity and a 1.9%-point decrease in smoking among women, while no such associations were observed among men. Heterogeneity was not found across countries, educational levels, and pre-retirement job characteristics. Gender differences in post-retirement health behaviors may contribute to heterogeneous associations between retirement and health. This article is part of a Special Collection on Cross-National Gerontology.