Labor market exit around retirement age in Sweden and trajectories of psychotropic drugs in a context of downsizing

BACKGROUND: A maintained psychological wellbeing is important in order to continue working longer and remain active into older age. However, little is known about impact of different organizational factors, such as downsizing, on the mental health of older workers exiting the labor market. The aim in this study was to investigate trajectories of purchases of psychotropic drugs in relation to labor market exit later in life in a context with and without downsizing. METHOD: People living in Sweden, born 1941–1951, exiting paid work via unemployment, sickness absence/disability pension, or old-age pension were followed from 2005 to 2013 regarding purchases of psychotropic drugs. Individuals employed at a workplace closing down or downsizing with ≥18% between two subsequent years were compared to employees exiting from workplaces without downsizing or workplace closure. Generalized estimating equations was applied to derive trajectories of annual prevalence of purchased antidepressants, sedatives and anxiolytics from 4 years before to 4 years after a labour market exit. RESULTS: During the period around the exit, old-age retirees experiencing a downsizing/workplace closure did not decrease their purchases of sedatives (OR 1.01 95% CI 0.95–1.07) while the unexposed decreased their purchases during this period (OR 0.95 95% CI 0.92–0.98). Similar differences concerning sedatives and antidepressants between exposed and unexposed were seen for those exiting via sickness absence or disability pension. Furthermore, a significant difference in purchases of anxiolytics was observed between those exposed to downsizing (OR 1.10 95% CI 0.97–1.24) and the unexposed (OR 0.98 95% CI 0.91–1.06) exiting via old-age retirement during the time before the exit. CONCLUSION: Downsizing or workplace closure, although weakly, was associated with higher prevalence of psychotropic drugs certain years around the labor market exit. The results support the idea that involuntary labor market exit in mature adulthood may negatively affect the development of mental health.