The impacts of retirement on cardiovascular risk factors in China: results from a 20-year prospective study

Presenter: Baowen Xue, University College London

Author: Baowen Xue

Co-author(s): Anne McMunn and Jenny Head

China plans to raise the compulsory retirement age for the first time since the 1950s, but few studies have investigated the impacts of retirement on health in China. The objective of this study was to examine the impacts of retirement on seven cardiovascular risk factors－BMI (body mass index), waist circumference, systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), fat intake, smoking status, and alcohol consumption－independent of any reciprocal effects of cardiovascular risk factors on retirement. This study included men and women who participated in the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1991-2011) at least once prior to and once after the year in which they retired (n=1254, 59% men). Piecewise multilevel models, which were centred at the year of retirement, were applied. A 17-year observation period both before and after retirement was analysed.

No bad effect of retirement on cardiovascular risk factors was observed in this study, instead, some beneficial effects were found. After retirement, the probability to be a moderate or heavy drinker went down, and the probability to be a non-drinker went up. SBP and DBP increased with age, but the rate of increase slowed down significantly after retirement. These beneficial effects on blood pressures are stronger in men than in women, and in urban men than in rural men. No significant effects of retirement on BMI, waist circumference, fat intake and smoking status were found.