Influence of retirement on health conditions and quality of life

Abstract

Introduction: Life expectancy is an important variable for retirement planning. The pension system and the importance of this period have lately been the focus of studies in Brazil. Objective: To evaluate the health conditions and quality of life (QoL) of retirees. Methods: Data collection was performed using the 36-item Short-Form Survey (SF-36), the Brazilian Economic Classification Criteria and a structured questionnaire. We verified the absence of normal data through the Shapiro-Wilk test, and then applied the Mann-Whitney U test in order to compare the groups (retirees who worked and those who did not). The significance level for the statistical tests was 5%. Results: Among the 205 retirees, we observed that the most prevalent diseases were hypertension (50.3%) and depression (37.0%). In addition, retirees who continued working after retirement had better health conditions and QoL. Conclusion: It is suggested that retirement planning may be an important alternative to minimize the development of psychosocial diseases and their aggravating factors.