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The effects of pre-retirement factors and retirement route on circumstances in retirement: findings from the Whitehall II study

Hyde, M; Ferrie, J; Higgs, P; Mein, G; Nazroo, J; (2004) The effects of pre-retirement factors and retirement route on circumstances in retirement: findings from the Whitehall II study. Ageing and Society (24) , Article 2. 10.1017/S0144686X03001624. Green open access

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Abstract

Retirement has traditionally been seen as the beginning of old age. It has been depicted as mandatory expulsion from the workforce and seen to mark the transition to a period of ill health and poverty. Such ideas and associations are however being challenged in the developed world by socio-demographic changes in retirement and old age. People in the United Kingdom as elsewhere are living longer and healthier lives, and many older people have access to non-state incomes that afford them a reasonable standard of living in retirement. There is however still concern that inequalities persist into old age. Data from two waves of the British Whitehall II study have been used to assess the relative effects of occupational grade, psychological and general health during working life, and retirement patterns or pathways on activities, attitudes to health and income in retirement. The results show that the majority of the sample reported good health, financial security and overall satisfaction with life, but with observable inequalities. Regression analyses demonstrate that pre-retirement circumstances generally had a greater effect on later life than the retirement route or pathway. Retirement no longer represents a drastic break between working and post-work life but rather, the results suggest, there are continuities between the two periods. It is concluded that the main causes of inequalities in retirement are work-based rather than in retirement itself.

Type: Article
Title: The effects of pre-retirement factors and retirement route on circumstances in retirement: findings from the Whitehall II study
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X03001624
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0144686X03001624
Language: English
Additional information: Copyright 2004 Cambridge University Press
Keywords: retirement, transfer, pre-retirement circumstances, retirement route, post-retirement circumstances
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Division of Psychiatry
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/181654
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