Work prolongs life

Those striving for longevity were advised to work longer

  Oleg Lischuk, N+1

American researchers have found that working at retirement age is associated with an increase in life expectancy. The scientists' findings are published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health (Wu et al., Association of retirement age with mortality: a population-based longitudinal study among older adults in the USA).

Employees of Oregon and Arizona State Universities analyzed data from 2,956 participants in a prospective Health and Retirement Study. All of them worked in 1992, when they agreed to participate, and retired by the end of observation in 2010.

Among healthy pensioners (there were 1,934 of them), scientists attributed those volunteers who reported that health was not an important reason for termination of employment. During the follow-up period, 234 participants (about 12 percent) from the healthy group and 262 (25.6 percent) from the unhealthy group died.

The relationship of retirement age with mortality from all causes was analyzed using the Cox regression model. It turned out that among healthy participants, termination of work a year later correlated with an 11 percent reduction in the risk of death from all causes. In unhealthy volunteers, late retirement was also associated with a decrease in mortality. The detected dependence was not influenced by sociodemographic factors and lifestyle.

According to the researchers, early retirement can be a risk factor for premature death, and working in retirement, on the contrary, increase the survival rate of older people.

"Perhaps this does not apply to all people, but, from our point of view, work brings a lot of economic and social benefits that can affect life expectancy," explained lead author Chen Kai Wu (in a press release Working longer may lead to a longer life, new OSU research shows).

Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru  29.04.2016