Fleischmann, M; Xue, B; Head, J; (2020) Mental Health Before and After Retirement-Assessing the Relevance of Psychosocial Working Conditions: The Whitehall II Prospective Study of British Civil Servants. The Journals of Gerontology: Series B , 75 (2) pp. 403-413. 10.1093/geronb/gbz042.

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Abstract

Objectives: Retirement could be a stressor or a relief. We stratify according to previous psychosocial working conditions to identify short-term and long-term changes in mental health. Method: Using data from the Whitehall II study on British civil servants who retired during follow-up (n = 4,751), we observe mental health (General Health Questionnaire [GHQ] score) on average 8.2 times per participant, spanning up 37 years. We differentiate short-term (0–3 years) and long-term (4+ years) changes in mental health according to retirement and investigate whether trajectories differ by psychosocial job demands, work social support, decision authority, and skill discretion. Results: Each year, mental health slightly improved before retirement (−0.070; 95% CI [−0.080, −0.059]; higher values on the GHQ score are indicative of worse mental health), and retirees experienced a steep short-term improvement in mental health after retirement (−0.253; 95% CI [−0.302, −0.205]), but no further significant long-term changes (0.017; 95% CI [−0.001, 0.035]). Changes in mental health were more explicit when retiring from poorer working conditions; this is higher psychosocial job demands, lower decision authority, or lower work social support. Discussion: Retirement was generally beneficial for health. The association between retirement and mental health was dependent on the context individuals retire from.

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