Department of Health Statistics, School of Public Health and Management, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
Public Health Center, Tianfu New Area Disease Prevention and Control Center, Sichuan, China.
Front Public Health. 2022 Nov 3;10:790377. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.790377. eCollection 2022.
The relationship between retirement and health is important to the formulation of retirement related policies but is a controversial topic, perhaps because selection bias has not been well-addressed in previous studies through traditional analysis methods. Using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS), this study explored the potential impact of retirement on the health of elderly Chinese individuals, adjusting for selection bias.
We balanced the baseline differences between retirement groups and working groups based on nearest neighbor matching and genetic matching with a generalized boosted model (GBM), and regression analysis was used to evaluate the impact of retirement on the health of elderly individuals.
No significant difference was found in any of the covariates between the two groups after matching. Genetic matching performed better than nearest neighbor matching in balancing the covariates. Compared to the working group, the retirement group had a 0.78 (95% CI: 0.65-0.94, = 0.026) times higher probability of self-reported physical pain, a 0.76 (95% CI: 0.62-0.93, = 0.023) times higher probability of depression, and a 0.57-point (95% CI: 0.37-0.78, < 0.001) improvement in cognitive status score. Among male, the retirement group had a 0.89-point (95% CI: 0.45-1.33, < 0.001) improvement in cognitive status score for low education, a 0.65 (95% CI: 0.46-0.92, = 0.042) times higher probability of self-reported physical pain for middle education. For female with low education, the cognitive status of the retirement group was significantly higher by 0.99 points (95% CI: 0.42-1.55, = 0.004), the probability of depression was 0.56 (95% CI: 0.36-0.87, = 0.031) times higher in the retirement group than in the working group. There was no difference for the middle and high education.
Retirement can exert a beneficial effect on the health of elderly individuals. Therefore, the government and relevant departments should consider this potential effect when instituting policies that delay retirement.
退休与健康之间的关系对制定退休相关政策很重要，但这是一个有争议的话题，也许是因为传统分析方法并未很好地解决选择偏差问题。本研究使用中国健康与养老追踪调查（CHARLS）的数据，通过广义提升模型（GBM）进行最近邻匹配和遗传匹配，探讨了退休对中国老年人健康的潜在影响，并调整了选择偏差。
我们根据最近邻匹配和遗传匹配（使用广义提升模型）对退休组和工作组的基线差异进行了平衡，然后使用回归分析评估了退休对老年人健康的影响。
匹配后两组之间的任何协变量均无显著差异。遗传匹配在平衡协变量方面优于最近邻匹配。与工作组相比，退休组自述身体疼痛的可能性高 0.78 倍（95%置信区间：0.65-0.94， = 0.026），抑郁的可能性高 0.76 倍（95%置信区间：0.62-0.93， = 0.023），认知状态评分提高 0.57 分（95%置信区间：0.37-0.78， ＜0.001）。在男性中，低教育水平的退休组认知状态评分提高 0.89 分（95%置信区间：0.45-1.33， ＜0.001），中教育水平的退休组自述身体疼痛的可能性高 0.65 倍（95%置信区间：0.46-0.92， = 0.042）。对于低教育水平的女性，退休组的认知状态显著提高 0.99 分（95%置信区间：0.42-1.55， = 0.004），抑郁的可能性高 0.56 倍（95%置信区间：0.36-0.87， = 0.031）。而对于中高等教育水平的女性，没有差异。
退休对老年人的健康可能产生有益影响。因此，政府和相关部门在制定延迟退休政策时应考虑这一潜在影响。
