Retirement May Offer Health Benefits

What age do you plan to retire at? Squeezing out a couple more years may seem harmless enough, but researchers are now saying that people who retire early have better health.

For the study, researchers from the University of Sydney Australia followed 27,257 participants, roughly 3,100 of whom had retired during the course of the 3-year study. Researchers sought to compare the diet, exercise, sleep habits, and overall health of participants who had retired against those who were still working.

After taking into initial health risks, researchers found that retirees walked for approximately 17 minutes more each week, participated in 45 minutes more of moderate-intensity strength training each week, and slept for roughly 15 minutes more per night than participants who were still working. 

Furthermore, female participants who had retired were more likely to stop smoking than female participants who were still working. Being that smoking remains the leading cause of preventatable death in the United States, that's a pretty eye-opening revelation made from this study.

So, what does this all mean? According to the study's lead author, retirees are generally happier than their working class counterparts. Of course, there's also the belief that retirees are healthier because they have more free time. When you aren't forced to wake up at 6:00 AM in the morning to work for eight hours a day, five days a week, you'll obviously have more time to to do things like walking, weightlifting, and cooking nutritious meals.

"This points to a happier picture," said Melody Ding, researcher at the University of Sydney and the study's lead author. “It allows people to look at retirement optimistically. But there are successful and unsuccessful retirements. It’s important not to over-generalize these results.”

The bottom line is that people should place a greater emphasis on their health and less on their occupation. Because without good health, having a job isn't going to be of much use.

In case you were wondering, the average age of retirement in the United States is now 62, according to a recent poll conducted by Gallup. This number has increased from just 59 in 2010, attesting to shift in the working class mindset.

This study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.