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Mental Retirement.

ABSTRACT: Some studies suggest that people can maintain their cognitive abilities through "mental exercise." This has not been unequivocally proven. Retirement is associated with a large change in a person's daily routine and environment. In this paper, we propose two mechanisms how retirement may lead to cognitive decline. For many people retirement leads to a less stimulating daily environment. In addition, the prospect of retirement reduces the incentive to engage in mentally stimulating activities on the job. We investigate the effect of retirement on cognition empirically using cross-nationally comparable surveys of older persons in the United States, England, and 11 European countries in 2004. We find that early retirement has a significant negative impact on the cognitive ability of people in their early 60s that is both quantitatively important and causal. Identification is achieved using national pension policies as instruments for endogenous retirement.

SUBMITTER: Rohwedder S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2958696 | biostudies-literature | 2010

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Mental Retirement.

Rohwedder Susann S Willis Robert J RJ

The journal of economic perspectives : a journal of the American Economic Association 20100101 1

Some studies suggest that people can maintain their cognitive abilities through "mental exercise." This has not been unequivocally proven. Retirement is associated with a large change in a person's daily routine and environment. In this paper, we propose two mechanisms how retirement may lead to cognitive decline. For many people retirement leads to a less stimulating daily environment. In addition, the prospect of retirement reduces the incentive to engage in mentally stimulating activities on ...[more]

PMID: 20975927

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Project description:BackgroundEmpirical evidence investigating heterogeneous impact of retirement on mental health depending on social backgrounds is lacking, especially among older adults.MethodsWe examined the impact of changes in working status on changes in mental health using Japanese community-dwelling adults aged ?65 years participating in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study between 2010 and 2013 (N = 62,438). Between-waves changes in working status ("Kept working", "Retired", "Started work", or "Continuously retired") were used to predict changes in depressive symptoms measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale. First-difference regression models were stratified by gender, controlling for changes in time-varying confounding actors including equivalised household income, marital status, instrumental activities of daily living, incidence of serious illnesses and family caregiving. We then examined the interactions between changes in working status and occupational class, changes in marital status, and post-retirement social participation.ResultsParticipants who transitioned to retirement reported significantly increased depressive symptoms (? = 0.33, 95% CI: 0.21-0.45 for men, and ? = 0.29, 95% CI: 0.13-0.45 for women) compared to those who kept working. Men who were continuously retired reported increased depressive symptoms (? = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.05-0.20), whereas males who started work reported decreased depressive symptoms (? = -0.20, 95% CI: -0.38--0.02). Men from lower occupational class (compared to men from higher class) reported more increase in depressive symptoms when continuously retired (? = -0.16, 95% CI: -0.25--0.08). Those reporting recreational social participation after retirement appeared to be less influenced by transition to retirement.ConclusionsRetirement may increase depressive symptoms among Japanese older adults, particularly men from lower occupational class backgrounds. Encouraging recreational social participation may mitigate the adverse effects of retirement on mental health of Japanese older men.

Dataset Information

Mental Retirement.

Publications

Mental Retirement.

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