[Impairments, disabilities and handicaps in a group of retired people in the Paris metropolitan area in relation to their socio-occupational status].

Interviewers using a questionnaire carried out a home survey among 627 retired persons (62.7% of the sample) in the greater Paris area for the purpose of exploring relationships between disablement (impairments, disabilities, and handicaps) and socio-professional status. The subjects were randomly selected from a pension fund roll. Among men, manual laborers had higher rates of disablement than did white-collar employees and executives. Among women, laborers, office workers and those in the services had similar disablement rates, while rates among executive women were lower. Overall, women had higher rates than men. But no relationship between age and disablement was observed. The examination of disablement indicates that socioeconomic differences--earlier shown to exist with regard to mortality and morbidity--also have their effect in retirement.