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INTERMEDIATE CONVERSATION
SEMESTER 5, LESSON 002
“THERE IS AT LEAST
ONE STUDY SHOWING
THAT PEOPLE ARE
HAPPIER, EVEN IF
THEY’RE NOT
HEALTHIER, AFTER
RETIRING, ESPECIALLY
IF IT WAS THEIR OWN
DECISION, BUT THE
EVIDENCE OVERALL IS
NOT CLEARCUT.”
DIRECTIONS:
Explain and interpret the quote.
1. _______________________________
2._______________________________
3. _______________________________
4. _______________________________
5. _______________________________
6. _______________________________
7._______________________________
8._______________________________
During the 18 years of the study, 12% of the healthy and 25.6% of the
unhealthy group died. After taking into account factors such as the healthy
group’s better education and finances, they found that healthy retirees who
worked a year longer (over the age of 65) had an 11% lower ‘all-cause
mortality risk”. Even the unhealthy group reduced their likelihood of dying by
9% if they delayed retirement. The solution This seems counterintuitive. If
anything should kill you, surely it’s dragging yourself into work until your late
60s.
There is at least one study showing that people are happier, even if they’re
not healthier, after retiring, especially if it was their own decision, but the
evidence overall is not clearcut. An Israeli study of 2,374 people found that
those who retired earlier had the same lifespan as those who did not. A
German study from 2009, Time to Retire – Time to Die?, is one of the few to
find that healthier people who retire before the age of 61 may live longer
than those who continue to work.
But this study, like some others, may not fully account for differences in
occupation – heavy manual jobs may take more of a toll than managerial
ones. A Swedish study found that women in non-manual jobs who retired had
a higher risk of dying from heart disease whenever they left work, compared
with those who stayed in jobs. But a Swedish study of army officers found
early retirement reduced the likelihood of dying by the age of 70 by 26%.
Many people will continue working from financial necessity.
But if you can afford to stop working earlier and you’re healthy, you shouldn’t
postpone retirement out of fear it could kill you. Chenkai Wu, lead author of
the latest paper, says that it may be what work represents to people that
prolongs life – not employment itself. “Keeping active and getting involved in
voluntary work definitely brings retirees a lot of benefits that would have
been brought about by keeping on working.”
SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/may/02/early-
earlier-retirement-retire-death-risk-data-research-jobs