Do those who retire early live
longer?
It's
often said that early retirement lengthens your life, but is it true? And do
some professions have a shorter life expectancy?
If
a statistical claim is repeated often enough it can become accepted as a
universal truth, even if it has no basis in fact.
There's
the suggestion that 93% of communication is non-verbal (not true) or the
oft-repeated suggestion that there are more people alive today than have ever
lived (not true either).
Here's
another - the later you retire, the earlier you will die. A variation on this
theme is the "fact" that, in some jobs, average life expectancy after
retirement is just 18 months. We've seen it said of teachers, prison officers,
surgeons and others.
The
implication is that people in these kinds of demanding jobs are working
themselves into their graves - and should probably be cut some slack. But is
there any evidence for it?
Some
evidence does at first glance appear to exist to support the first claim - that
people who work longer die younger than those who retire early.
A
paper attributed to the aircraft-maker Boeing shows that employees who retire
at 55 live to, on average, 83. But those who retire at 65 only last, on
average, another 18 months.
The
"Boeing study" has been quoted by newspapers, magazines and pundits.
It's circulated on the internet for years. The problem with it is that Boeing
itself says it's simply not true.
Putting
Boeing to one side, then, is there any other evidence which might support the
idea that retiring early prolongs life? Surprisingly, perhaps, the truth may be
the precise opposite: the later you retire, the longer you live.
Epidemiologists
at the oil firm Shell carried out a study of past employees in the US, which
found that mortality was slightly earlier - on average - for staff who retired
at 55, than for those who continued working to 65.
But
the actuary Dave Grimshaw says we need to be very careful about what
conclusions we draw from the Shell data. The statistical waters, he says, are
muddied by the fact that people retire at different ages for different reasons.
"You
will have a group who are forced to retire [early] as a result of ill health
and that may impact on their life expectancy," he says.
"In
contrast there will be other people that choose to retire at 55, as more of a
lifestyle decision. They may well be more affluent people. And they will also
probably be in good health."
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