日本語タイトル:引退および社会参加が及ぼす健康影響 JSTARパネルデータによる検討

Health Consequences of Transitioning to Retirement and Social Participation: Results based on JSTAR panel data

執筆者 橋本 英樹  (東京大学)
発行日/NO. 2013年9月  13-E-078
研究プロジェクト 社会保障問題の包括的解決をめざして:高齢化の新しい経済学
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概要

引退が及ぼす健康への影響について、これまで内外における検討結果は一致を見ていない。その理由として引退過程の多様性、健康の諸側面に及ぶ影響の違い、引退に伴う社会参加や引退理由の違いなどが十分考慮されていなかったことが挙げられる。本稿ではJSTARのパネルデータを用いて、引退・社会参加による身体・認知機能、精神的健康に対する影響を検討した。性的役割の違いを反映し、男女で引退過程は大きく異なり、特に「専業主婦」の扱いが女性では問題となる。認知機能や精神的健康は男性では引退により悪化することを確認した。ただし、高ストレス状態からの引退ではその程度は少なかった。一方、女性では引退による健康影響は有意に見られなかった。ただし家族介護などを理由とした引退は、精神的健康を損なっていた。男性では引退により社会参加が進み認知機能や精神的健康の改善が見られた。女性では引退と社会参加の相互関係は弱かった。以上から、高齢社会における社会経済政策では、就労・引退・社会参加を包括的に取り扱うこと、また性的役割や引退理由など多様性を考慮し差別化戦略を取ることが求められると結論された。



概要(英語)

Despite an extensive amount of published economic, psychological, and public health research, a consensual view on the causal relationship between retirement and health remains to be articulated. This lack of consensus is arguably due to the diversity in the transitional process from employment to full retirement, the usage of various characteristics of outcome measures, social and economic conditions affecting the retirement decision, and the impact of crowding-out by activities not related to formal work (e.g., in the family and community network). We used panel data from the Japanese Study of Aging and Retirement (JSTAR) to scrutinize the complex relationships among employment status transition; physical, functional, and cognitive aspects of health measures; and types of social participation. We confirmed that transitioning from employment to retirement is a diverse and gradual process with distinct gender-related aspects. Social participation is significantly related to exiting formal work situations for men, but not for women. There were distinct patterns of health transition across employment status transition, by types of health measures, and by reasons for retirement. Regression analyses were conducted to identify the effect of retirement, as leave from paid work, on health conditions. Variables included in the analyses accounted for social participation, stress received from the former job, and reasons for retirement. The results which included propensity weighting reveal that psychological distress and cognitive function decline after retirement for men, but not for women. Retirement from jobs with high stress was followed by an improvement in health, especially among men. Additional results indicate that retirement is accompanied by increased social participation. Social participation ameliorates psychological distress and cognitive decline among men, but not among women. Limitations in the instrumental activities of daily life as well as in grip strength are not considerably affected by retirement. Among women, retirement to engage in family care significantly and heavily affected the level of psychological distress. These results indicate that the theories on which aspects of health status determine—and are determined by—the mode of employment status transition should be improved. Policies on work and health in the elderly population should not seek a one-size-fits-all solution, but should target different segments in terms of work characteristics, economic and social needs, and gender roles in the household.