Chandola, T;
Rouxel, P;
Marmot, MG;
Kumari, M;
(2018)
Retirement and Socioeconomic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol: Longitudinal Evidence From a Cohort of British Civil Servants.
The Journals of Gerontology Series B
, 73
(3)
pp. 447-456.
10.1093/geronb/gbx058.
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Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Early old age and the period around retirement are associated with a widening in socioeconomic inequalities in health. There are few studies that address the stress-biological factors related to this widening. This study examined whether retirement is associated with more advantageous (steeper) diurnal cortisol profiles, and differences in this association by occupational grade. METHOD: Data from the 7th (2002-2004), 8th (2006), and 9th (2007-09) phases of the London-based Whitehall II civil servants study were analysed. Thousand hundred and forty three respondents who were employed at phase 8 (mean age 59.9 years) and who had salivary cortisol measured from five samples collected across the day at phases 7 and 9 were analysed. RESULTS: Retirement was associated with steeper diurnal slopes compared to those who remained in work. Employees in the lowest grades had flatter diurnal cortisol slopes compared to those in the highest grades. Low-grade retirees in particular had flatter diurnal slopes compared to high-grade retirees. DISCUSSION: Socioeconomic differences in a biomarker associated with stress increase, rather than decrease, around the retirement period. These biological differences associated with transitions into retirement for different occupational groups may partly explain the pattern of widening social inequalities in health in early old age.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Retirement and Socioeconomic Differences in Diurnal Cortisol: Longitudinal Evidence From a Cohort of British Civil Servants |
| Location: | United States |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/geronb/gbx058 |
| Publisher version: | http://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbx058 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | Inequalities, Later Life employment, Stress biomarkers |
| 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 Medical Sciences 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/10022812 |
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