[Who can manage until the age of 65? Not the women--more than a half of all women stop working prematurely].
We followed 300 Stockholm women, aged 30 to 65, for ten years to examine their health at the end of their working life and adaptation to retirement. Less than half of the initially healthy women were working until the retirement age of 65. More women left their working lives due to work related causes, than because of illness. Baseline assessments of stress at work and stress in the family were more important determinants of ill health than were life style (smoking, alcohol intake, exercise) and standard risk factors (lipid and hemostatic profile, blood pressure and obesity). The distribution of deaths and sickness pensions followed an expected social gradient with a higher frequency in women of lower social class, whereas the reverse was true for long-term sick leave (over 28 days). To stop working before the age of 65, with or without economic compensation, may be interpreted as an effective "coping-mechanism" available to well educated women, in order to avoid life-threatening illness.
Orth-Gomér
Kristina
K
Institutionen för folkhälsovetenskap, Karolinska institutet, Stockholm. k.orth-gomer@phs.ki.se
Lewandrowski
Evelyn
E
Westman
Lars-Peter
LP
Wang
Hui-Xin
HX
Leineweber
Constanze
C
D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008875:Middle Aged; D012179:Retirement / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012307:Risk Factors; D018582:Sick Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D016387:Women's Health; D014931:Women, Working / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016526:Workload