Increased Life Expectancy from Positive Perceptions of Retirement

Studies on the relationship between retirement and subsequent health, including longevity, have produced mixed findings. One reason may be that these studies have treated retirement as a uniform event. In contrast, we examine whether individuals’ attitude toward retirement (ATR) can impact longevity. As predicted, we found that participants with positive ATR at the start of the study lived longer than those with negative ATR. They had a median survival advantage of 4.9 years. The cohort was the Ohio Longitudinal Study of Aging and Retirement that measured ATR in 1975 and followed longevity for 23 years. Through survival analysis, we found that participants with negative ATR had 1.71 times higher risk of death as compared to those with positive ATR after controlling for relevant covariates including age, employment status, functional health and socioeconomic status. Possible mechanisms driving the ATR-longevity link are discussed.