Retirement and Socioeconomic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol: Longitudinal Evidence From a Cohort of British Civil Servants.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Early old age and the period around retirement are associated with a widening in socioeconomic inequalities in health. There are few studies that address the stress-biological factors related to this widening. This study examined whether retirement is associated with more advantageous (steeper) diurnal cortisol profiles, and differences in this association by occupational grade.

Method

Data from the 7th (2002-2004), 8th (2006), and 9th (2007-09) phases of the London-based Whitehall II civil servants study were analysed. Thousand hundred and forty three respondents who were employed at phase 8 (mean age 59.9 years) and who had salivary cortisol measured from five samples collected across the day at phases 7 and 9 were analysed.

Results

Retirement was associa

SUBMITTER: Chandola T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5927089 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature