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Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study
BACKGROUND: Due to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives. In the Netherlands, many employees still leave the workforce before the official retirement age of 65. Previous quantitative research showed that poor self-perceived health is a risk...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621068/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23551994 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-292 |
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author | de Wind, Astrid Geuskens, Goedele A Reeuwijk, Kerstin G Westerman, Marjan J Ybema, Jan Fekke Burdorf, Alex Bongers, Paulien M van der Beek, Allard J |
author_facet | de Wind, Astrid Geuskens, Goedele A Reeuwijk, Kerstin G Westerman, Marjan J Ybema, Jan Fekke Burdorf, Alex Bongers, Paulien M van der Beek, Allard J |
author_sort | de Wind, Astrid |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Due to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives. In the Netherlands, many employees still leave the workforce before the official retirement age of 65. Previous quantitative research showed that poor self-perceived health is a risk factor of (non-disability) early retirement. However, little is known on how poor health may lead to early retirement, and why poor health leads to early retirement in some employees, but not in others. Therefore, the present qualitative study aims to identify in which ways health influences early retirement. METHODS: Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 employees (60–64 years) who retired before the official retirement age of 65. Participants were selected from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, a summary was made including a timeline, and the interviews were open coded. RESULTS: In 15 of the 30 persons, health played a role in early retirement. Both poor and good health influenced early retirement. For poor health, four pathways were identified. First, employees felt unable to work at all due to health problems. Second, health problems resulted in a self-perceived (future) decline in the ability to work, and employees chose to retire early. Third, employees with health problems were afraid of a further decline in health, and chose to retire early. Fourth, employees with poor health retired early because they felt pushed out by their employer, although they themselves did not experience a reduced work ability. A good health influenced early retirement, since persons wanted to enjoy life while their health still allowed to do so. The financial opportunity to retire sometimes triggered the influence of poor health on early retirement, and often triggered the influence of good health. Employees and employers barely discussed opportunities to prolong working life. CONCLUSIONS: Poor and good health influence early retirement via several different pathways. To prolong working life, a dialogue between employers and employees and tailored work-related interventions may be helpful. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3621068 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36210682013-04-10 Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study de Wind, Astrid Geuskens, Goedele A Reeuwijk, Kerstin G Westerman, Marjan J Ybema, Jan Fekke Burdorf, Alex Bongers, Paulien M van der Beek, Allard J BMC Public Health Research Article BACKGROUND: Due to the aeging of the population, there is a societal need for workers to prolong their working lives. In the Netherlands, many employees still leave the workforce before the official retirement age of 65. Previous quantitative research showed that poor self-perceived health is a risk factor of (non-disability) early retirement. However, little is known on how poor health may lead to early retirement, and why poor health leads to early retirement in some employees, but not in others. Therefore, the present qualitative study aims to identify in which ways health influences early retirement. METHODS: Face-to-face semi-structured interviews were conducted with 30 employees (60–64 years) who retired before the official retirement age of 65. Participants were selected from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, a summary was made including a timeline, and the interviews were open coded. RESULTS: In 15 of the 30 persons, health played a role in early retirement. Both poor and good health influenced early retirement. For poor health, four pathways were identified. First, employees felt unable to work at all due to health problems. Second, health problems resulted in a self-perceived (future) decline in the ability to work, and employees chose to retire early. Third, employees with health problems were afraid of a further decline in health, and chose to retire early. Fourth, employees with poor health retired early because they felt pushed out by their employer, although they themselves did not experience a reduced work ability. A good health influenced early retirement, since persons wanted to enjoy life while their health still allowed to do so. The financial opportunity to retire sometimes triggered the influence of poor health on early retirement, and often triggered the influence of good health. Employees and employers barely discussed opportunities to prolong working life. CONCLUSIONS: Poor and good health influence early retirement via several different pathways. To prolong working life, a dialogue between employers and employees and tailored work-related interventions may be helpful. BioMed Central 2013-04-03 /pmc/articles/PMC3621068/ /pubmed/23551994 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-292 Text en Copyright © 2013 de Wind et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article de Wind, Astrid Geuskens, Goedele A Reeuwijk, Kerstin G Westerman, Marjan J Ybema, Jan Fekke Burdorf, Alex Bongers, Paulien M van der Beek, Allard J Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title | Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title_full | Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title_fullStr | Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title_full_unstemmed | Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title_short | Pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
title_sort | pathways through which health influences early retirement: a qualitative study |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3621068/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23551994 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-292 |
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