Institute of Economic Research, Hitotsubashi University.
JICA Ogata Sadako Research Institute for Peace and Development.
J Epidemiol. 2023 Jan 5;33(1):15-22. doi: 10.2188/jea.JE20210030. Epub 2021 Oct 19.
Encouraging older adults to continue working longer would be a realistic solution to the shrinking labor force, which is a result of the aging population. This study examined whether working longer improves the health of older adults.
We used repeated cross-sectional data from 1,483,591 individuals aged 55-69 years collected from 11 waves of a nationwide population-based survey conducted in Japan from 1986 to 2016. We estimated pooled regression models to explain health outcomes by work status, controlling for potential endogeneity biases. Based on the estimation results, we conducted simulations to predict the health impact of policy measures that encourage older adults to participate in the labor force.
The regression analysis showed that work status had a mixed health impact. For example, work reduced the probability of poor self-rated health by 6.7 (95% confidence interval [CI], 6.2-7.2) percentage points and increased that of psychological distress by 12.2 (95% CI, 11.3-13.1) percentage points. The simulation results showed that raising both the mandatory retirement age and eligibility age for claiming public pension benefits to 70 years would increase the employment rate by 27.8 (standard deviation [SD], 4.2) percentage points among those aged 65-69 years, which would reduce their probability of poor self-rated health by 1.8 (SD, 0.4) percentage points and raise that of psychological distress by 4.1 (SD, 0.8) percentage points for that age group.
The results suggest the need to pay attention to the health outcomes of policy measures that encourage older adults to work longer.
鼓励老年人延长工作时间，对于解决因人口老龄化导致的劳动力缩减问题是一个切实可行的方案。本研究旨在探讨延长工作时间是否有益于老年人的健康。
我们使用了日本 1986 年至 2016 年期间进行的 11 次全国性人口调查中收集的 1483591 名 55-69 岁人群的重复横截面数据。我们通过控制潜在的内生性偏差，使用汇总回归模型来解释工作状态与健康结果之间的关系。基于估计结果，我们进行了模拟预测，以评估鼓励老年人参与劳动力市场的政策措施对健康的影响。
回归分析表明，工作状态对健康的影响是复杂的。例如，工作降低了自评健康状况不佳的概率 6.7（95%置信区间 [CI]，6.2-7.2）个百分点，增加了心理困扰的概率 12.2（95% CI，11.3-13.1）个百分点。模拟结果表明，将法定退休年龄和公共养老金领取资格年龄均提高到 70 岁，将使 65-69 岁人群的就业率提高 27.8（标准差 [SD]，4.2）个百分点，这将使该年龄段人群自评健康状况不佳的概率降低 1.8（SD，0.4）个百分点，心理困扰的概率提高 4.1（SD，0.8）个百分点。
研究结果表明，有必要关注鼓励老年人延长工作时间的政策措施对健康结果的影响。
