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Mental Health Before and After Retirement-Assessing the Relevance of Psychosocial Working Conditions: The Whitehall II Prospective Study of British Civil Servants.


ABSTRACT:

Objectives

Retirement could be a stressor or a relief. We stratify according to previous psychosocial working conditions to identify short-term and long-term changes in mental health.

Method

Using data from the Whitehall II study on British civil servants who retired during follow-up (n = 4,751), we observe mental health (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ] score) on average 8.2 times per participant, spanning up 37 years. We differentiate short-term (0-3 years) and long-term (4+ years) changes in mental health according to retirement and investigate whether trajectories differ by psychosocial job demands, work social support, decision authority, and skill discretion.

Results

Each year, mental health slightly improved before retirement (-0.070; 95% CI [-0.080, -0.059]; higher values on the GHQ score are indicative of worse mental health), and retirees experienced a steep short-term improvement in mental health after retirement (-0.253; 95% CI [-0.302, -0.205]), but no further significant long-term changes (0.017; 95% CI [-0.001, 0.035]). Changes in mental health were more explicit when retiring from poorer working conditions; this is higher psychosocial job demands, lower decision authority, or lower work social support.

Discussion

Retirement was generally beneficial for health. The association between retirement and mental health was dependent on the context individuals retire from.

SUBMITTER: Fleischmann M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7392102 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Mental Health Before and After Retirement-Assessing the Relevance of Psychosocial Working Conditions: The Whitehall II Prospective Study of British Civil Servants.

Fleischmann Maria M   Xue Baowen B   Head Jenny J  

The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences 20200101 2


<h4>Objectives</h4>Retirement could be a stressor or a relief. We stratify according to previous psychosocial working conditions to identify short-term and long-term changes in mental health.<h4>Method</h4>Using data from the Whitehall II study on British civil servants who retired during follow-up (n = 4,751), we observe mental health (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ] score) on average 8.2 times per participant, spanning up 37 years. We differentiate short-term (0-3 years) and long-term (4+ y  ...[more]

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