Mental Work Demands, Retirement, and Longitudinal Trajectories of Cognitive Functioning

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Occup Health Psychol
• Personal Author:
  Fisher, Gwenith G. ; Stachowski, Alicia ; Infurna, Frank J. ; Faul, Jessica D. ; Grosch, James ; Tetrick, Lois E.
• Description:
  Age-related changes in cognitive abilities are well-documented, and a very important indicator of health, functioning, and decline in later life. However, less is known about the course of cognitive functioning before and after retirement and specifically whether job characteristics during one's time of employment (i.e., higher vs. lower levels of mental work demands) moderate how cognition changes both before and after the transition to retirement. We used data from n = 4,182 (50% women) individuals in the Health and Retirement Study, a nationally representative panel study in the United States, across an 18 year time span (1992-2010). Data were linked to the O*NET occupation codes to gather information about mental job demands to examine whether job characteristics during one's time of employment moderates level and rate of change in cognitive functioning (episodic memory and mental status) both before and after retirement. Results indicated that working in an occupation characterized by higher levels of mental demands was associated with higher levels of cognitive functioning before retirement, and a slower rate of cognitive decline after retirement. We controlled for a number of important covariates, including socioeconomic (education and income), demographic, and health variables. Our discussion focuses on pathways through which job characteristics may be associated with the course of cognitive functioning in relation to the important transition of retirement. Implications for job design as well as retirement are offered.
• Subjects:
  Cognition Employment Female Humans Longitudinal Studies Male Middle Aged Retirement Stress, Psychological
• Keywords:
  Cognitive Aging Cognitive Functioning Health And Retirement Study (HRS) Job Complexity Mental Demands Retirement
• Source:
  J Occup Health Psychol. 19(2):231-242
• Pubmed ID:
  24635733
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4663987
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R37 AG007137/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 AG009740/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; CC999999/Intramural CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01 AG027010/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01AG009740/AG/NIA NIH HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  19
• Issue:
  2
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:2c01f03f565ab54f4d4c42d23573afb8240272d8b735af8bdfff921b36596d766a0375f496b380221484cbde3e85aea6101d2904858df87a64f07ffa91ba556b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/36718/cdc_36718_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 416.37 KB ]