Situational Determinants: Health and Economic Deprivation in Retirement.

This article is a systematic examination of the manner in which the adequacy of factors relates to the fact of retirement on the one hand and to adjustment in retirement on the other. It concerns the question of whether, and to what extent, self-evaluation of health and income adequacy are effects of retirement. The relationship between retirement and health remains one of the persistent questions in social gerontology. Popularly it is assumed that retirement leads to a decline in physical well-being, for everyone knows of at least one person whose health deteriorated or who died suspiciously soon after retiring. The hypothesis tested here is that, in general, retirement leads to a decline in health. Comparison of changes in economic deprivation between 1952 and 1954 shows very significant differences between those who had retired during this period and those who continued working. In conclusion, important elements in understanding the problem of adjustment in retirement are pointed up by the independent and cumulative relationship between pre-retirement attitude toward retirement and economic deprivation on the one hand, and dissatisfaction with retirement on the other.