The study team analyzed data of more than 20,000 US-Americans between the ages of 55 to 75 years from the Health and Retirement Study. These participants had taken part in the labor market at some point between 1996 and 2014.
‘Cognitive decline especially those caused by Alzheimers disease may be slowed down by participating in the labor market until the age of 67 years.
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Retirement and Cognition
“In this study, we approach retirement and cognitive function from the perspective that they both come near the end of a long path of life. It begins with one’s social origins in ethnicity, gender, and early-life social and economic status, goes on with educational and occupational attainment and health behaviors, and goes all the way up to more proximate factors such as partnership status and mental and physical health. All these kinds of factors accumulate and interact over a lifetime to affect both cognitive function and age at retirement”, says Angelo Lorenti, affiliated with the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in Rostock, Germany.
The study had investigated how social and labor market dynamics are associated with demographic change. Several countries have enacted policies to increase the statutory retirement age.
This brings on a need to understand the relevance between retiring at older ages and it may have health consequences, especially the cognitive functions.
“Our study suggests that there may be a fortuitous unintended consequence of postponed retirement”, says Lorenti.
Source: Medindia
