Research Report: ER Can Kill Ya

J

jdmorton

Recycles dryer sheets
Joined
Mar 11, 2005
Messages
161
It's Friday and a quick review of the interwebs came up with this little gem from Oregon State University: Association of retirement age with mortality: a population-based longitudinal study among older adults in the USA -- Wu et al. -- Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (Association of retirement age with mortality: a population-based longitudinal study among older adults in the USA)

The link is to the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health on-line article section that contains an abstract of the research report. You have to pay to download the entire paper.

Here is the conclusion at the bottom of the abstract: "Early retirement may be a risk factor for mortality and prolonged working life may provide survival benefits among US adults."

For more fun reading, here is a link to an article in yesterday's UK Daily Mail discussing the report: Researchers find those who work past 65 live longer | Daily Mail Online. As is typical, the comments are more interesting than the article.

Have a great weekend everyone.:greetings10:
 
I heard too much love can kill ya too.

Good thing that mercury gives eternal life. Well, according to Qin Shi Huang. And he was emperor.
 
Didn't read as I find it ridiculous.
Don't drink coffee because you'll die. Years later they found out it's actually good to sip some coffee. Same goes for chocolate or eggs or whatever... now ER is being attacked. It sounds like it's being assumed that once you close the 9-to-5 door you just sit like a couch potato, eat chips, and stare at TV....uhhh
 
To paraphrase an old joke, late retirees don't really live longer, it just seems like longer.
 
I told ya all in the other link on this subject from imoldernu (yesterday), that reading these articles and studies is making me mad. My anger at this nonsense is going to kill me!
 
I never put much stock in these data mining correlation studies. Just too many ways for bias to creep into the work. This struck me as especially telling:

"None of the sociodemographic factors were found to modify the association of retirement age with all-cause mortality."

Really? Just working longer increased lifespan, no matter the kind of work, desk jobs, ditch digging, stressful work, supervisor work, etc, and nothing in retirement mattered? Those that just ate and watched TV or those that had a new lifestyle of helping others, traveling or anything? I just don't buy it. It does not make any sense.

Seems to me this is just another correlation study by some people who needed to write another paper. The effects of types of retirement, work stress, or really just lifestyle on longevity are important matters that should be examined. But from what I read in the abstract this paper seems to be a long way from it.
 
Wasn't Thurston Howell III the oldest person on Gilligan's Island? (Drops the mic, and retires.)
 
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The reason most people "retire" early is because their health has failed them, not because they're independently wealthy as most on this website are aiming for.
 
Not to mention that some ER's reduce their activity level.
 
They forgot to account for retirement dog years . . .

1 Yr ER > 7 Yrs Working

And other iterations . . .

2 Yrs ER > 1 Yr Working + 1 Yr Nursing Home
 
Maybe too much physical activity can kill you? Wink wink


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
As a Duck grad (U of O) papers that come out of Oregon State are... problematic.

Quack, quack.
 
The #1 predictor of death is life.

Quantity and quality aren't all that correlated either :)

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Early Retirement Forum mobile app
 
I wish I had known that when I retired at 42. I guess at 69 I'm living on borrowed time. I'm actually thinking about going back to work so I can get some rest:dance:
 
Holly cow batman I retired cause I thought the stress and work travel was killing me. My blood pressure and cholesterol numbers are now the best they have ever been, Oh ya no stress and was able to finally quit smoking those cigs. Oh ya finally have time to exercise. Oh ya bedroom activity is much better too. If that is going to kill me I am ok with that!
 
Here is the conclusion at the bottom of the abstract: "Early retirement may be a risk factor for mortality and prolonged working life may provide survival benefits among US adults.
Click to expand...

Or, perhaps some people simply choose to retire early if their health starts to fail.
 
Was the study normalized for health? For instance, was the health of the group who retired early the same as the group who retired later.

If the group who retired early had more health challenges than those who continued to work then the study could be biased.
 
brett said:
Was the study normalized for health? For instance, was the health of the group who retired early the same as the group who retired later.

If the group who retired early had more health challenges than those who continued to work then the study could be biased.
Click to expand...
A very important point. It doesn't look like it was normalized for health. From the abstract
Healthy retirees (n=1934) were defined as individuals who self-reported health was not an important reason to retire.
Click to expand...
 
Agree with the others. Those who choose to work in Their 70s and beyond are by default, pretty healthy or they would not be able to do it. Some stop younger for health reasons or knowing their family history does not favor long lives.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
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