Costs of Forced Retirement: Measuring the Effect of Lost Work Opportunity on Health

Objective: Unemployment is a known health stressor that also increases early retirements. This study addresses mixed literature on retiree health and underreporting of forced retirement to better identify potential health impacts of lost work opportunity.

Methods: A Lost-work Opportunity Score (LOS) was created using variables from the Health and Retirement Study assessing unemployment, forced retirement, and earlier-than-planned retirement for 2576 respondents. Reliability and unidimensionality of the score with multivariate regression analyses examined health impacts controlling for demographics and prior health status.

Results: The LOS possessed unidimensionality with a Cronbach's alpha of a = 0.76 while predicting self-reported health declines (LOS = 2; β = 0.381, OR = 1.464, P < 0.05) and depression increase (LOS = 2; β = 0.417, OR = 1.517, P < 0.05).

Conclusions: LOS predicts 46% increased odds of negative self-reported health change after retirement associated with two LOS events, with implications to support aging workers.