Older Workers’ Health to Be Studied

By QUIRKE, Michelle

THIS month 13,000 workers and retirees will be surveyed in the first stage of a longitudinal study of the health of older New Zealanders as they move from work to retirement.

Funded with a $900,000 grant from the Health Research Council for the first three years of a 10-year project, the Health, Work and Retirement study is led by Fiona Alpass of Massey University’s School of Psychology.

The research team includes Christine Stephens, Judith Davey, director of the New Zealand Institute for Research on Ageing at Victoria University, Eljon Fitzgerald, Brendan Stevenson, Helen Pennington and Andy Towers.

Dr Alpass said the study would look at the relationships between physical and mental health and personal circumstances for people aged 55-70 as they move into retirement, and examine how this relates to positive aging, independence and maintenance of health as people grow older.

“There are fantastic longitudinal studies on children. There’s a lack of longitudinal data in New Zealand on aging.

“What we’re arguing is that a lot of the health effects that you have in old age usually begin in middle age. Quite a lot of people in their 50s have the beginnings of chronic illness.”

Data will be collected through postal questionnaires and interviews, with follow-up interviews every second year.

The main, biennial, mail survey will ask questions about work life, health, social support, their views about themselves, and their intentions and views on retirement.

Demographic information relating to gender, living location, and education will also be collected.

The second part of the study focuses on face-to-face interviews with people from the lower North Island for an in-depth analysis of topics, such as people’s views and perceptions of current or past paid work, retirement intentions, lifestyle choice, and healthcare.

The third part of the study involves participants of an existing 25-year longitudinal study of Maori households within Te Putahi-a- Toi, the School of Maori Studies. Participants of the Te Hoe Nuku Roa project will be interviewed to assess their views and perceptions of work and retirement.

People ask what is so special about baby boomers, Dr Alpass said.

They are not extraordinary. “It’s just that there’s a huge number of them,” she said.

Though it is the first longitudinal study of its kind in New Zealand, there have been similar bigger surveys done in Europe and the United States.

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