Social relationships as predictors of extended employment beyond the pensionable age: a cohort study

Finnish Retirement and Aging Study: a prospective cohort study

PURPOSE

The Finnish Retirement and Aging (FIREA) Study was set up to study changes in health behavioural and cardiometabolic risk factors across retirement transition, and to examine the long-term consequences of work and retirement on health and functioning with advancing age.

PARTICIPANTS

Public sector workers whose estimated statutory retirement date was in 2014-2019 were invited to participate by sending them a questionnaire 18 months prior to their estimated retirement date. In the first phase of the FIREA Study, participants were followed up with annual surveys, accelerometer and clinical measurements during retirement transition into post-retirement years. The FIREA survey cohort includes 6783 participants, of which 908 belong also to the activity substudy and 290 to the clinical substudy.

FINDINGS TO DATE

Collected data include survey measures about health, lifestyle factors, psychosocial distress, work-related factors as well as retirement intentions. Accelerometer and GPS devices are used to measure 24-hour movement behaviours. Clinical examination includes blood and hair sample, measurements of anthropometry, cardiovascular function, physical fitness, physical and cognitive function. Our results suggest that in general retirement transition seems to have beneficial influence on health behaviours as well as on physical and mental health, but there are large individual differences, and certain behaviours such as sedentariness tend to increase especially among those retiring from manual occupations.

FUTURE PLANS

The second phase of the FIREA Study will be conducted during 2023-2025, when participants are 70 years old. The FIREA Study welcomes research collaboration proposals that fall within the general aims of the project.

Social network ties before and after retirement: a cohort study

Social networks are associated with individual's health and well-being. Working life offers opportunities to create and maintain social networks, while retirement may change these networks. This study examined how the number of ties in social network changes across the retirement transition. The study population consisted of 2319 participants (84% women, mean age 63.2 years) from the Finnish Retirement and Aging study. Information about social network ties, including the number of ties in the inner, middle and outer circles of the social convoy model, was gathered using annual postal surveys before and after retirement. Three repeat surveys per participant covered the retirement transition and the post-retirement periods. Mean number of network ties was 21.6 before retirement, of which 5.6 were situated in the inner, 6.9 in the middle and 9.1 in the outer circle. The number of ties in the outer circle decreased by 0.67 (95% CI - 0.92, - 0.42) during the retirement transition period, but not during the post-retirement period (0.11, 95% CI - 0.33, 0.12) (interaction period * time, p = 0.006). The pattern of change in these ties did not differ by gender, occupational status, marital status, number of chronic diseases and mental health during the retirement transition period. The number of ties in the inner and middle circles overall did not decrease during these periods. The number of peripheral relationships decreased during the retirement transition but not after that, suggesting that the observed reduction is more likely to be associated with retirement rather than aging.