There is evidence that people who retire early tend to die earlier than people who do not. One interpretation of this finding is that having a sense of purpose improves psychological health and that psychological health is linked to physical health. What is the evidence for the validity or invalidity of this interpretation? (I am equally interested in the validity of this interpretation with respect to early retirement and with respect to other measures/correlates of purpose.)http://longevity.about.com/od/healthyagingandlongevity/a/retirement.htm
Does having a sense of purpose increase longevity?
aging;well being;health psychology
I did a little search and found an article by Moen (1996) which seems relevant. Moen summarised the existing evidence as follows:Poor physical health is frequently a reason for retiring (Anderson &  Burkhauser, 1985; Bound, 1991; Chirikos & Nestel, 1989; Palmore,  Burchett, Filenbaum, George, & Wallman, 1985), leading to a view of a  unidirectional link between health and retirement (see Figure 1). In  support of this one-way model, most of the existing research  literature has shown that retirement per se is not directly related to  early mortality or health decline. However, there is some evidence  that being retired affects psychological symptoms (Bosse, Aldwin,  Levenson, Spiro, & Mroczek, 1993; Ekerdt, 1987). Other studies show  that retired individuals sometimes report improvements in their  (subjectively rated) health status following retirement (Ekerdt,  Bosse, & Locastro, 1983). Most early research on retirement suggests  that being retired has no deleterious effects on either physical or  psychological health; most retirees say they are satisfied with their  retirement and some even report better health (Atchley, 1976; Barfield  & Morgan, 1968; McGoldrick & Cooper, 1989; Streib & Schneider, 1971).  However, research on the effects of the loss of the work role through  retirement often ignores the complexity of the retirement transition,  including issues of timing, previous health, and quality of the  employment experience (McGoldrick & Cooper, 1988). George (1993)  pointed out that most research on stress and well-being fails to  consider either the social contexts or the timing of potentially  stressful life experiences, such as retirement.ReferencesAnderson, K. H., & Burkhauser, R. V. (1985). Theretirement-health nexus: A new measure of an old puzzle.The Journal of Human Resources, 20, 315-330.Atchley, R. (1976). The sociology of retirement. New York:Schenkman.Barfield, R., & Morgan, J. N. (1968). Early retirement: Thedecision and the experiences. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute forSocial Research.Bound, J. (1991). Self-reported objective measures of healthin retirement models. The Journal of Human Resources,26, 108-137.Bosse,  R., Aldwin, C. M., Levenson, M. R., Spiro, A., &Mroczek, D. K. (1993). Change in social support afterretirement: Longitudinal findings from the normativeaging study. Journal of Gerontology, 48, 210-217.Chirikos, T. N., & Nestel, G. (1989). Occupation, impairedhealth, and the functional capacity of men to continueworking. Research on Aging, 11, 174-205.Ekerdt, D. J. (1987). Why the notion persists that retirementharms health. Gerontologist, 27, 454-^57.Ekerdt, D. J., Bosse, R., & Locastro, J. S. (1983). Claims thatretirement improves health. Journal of Gerontology, 38,231-236.George, L. K. (1993). Sociological perspectives on lifetransitions. Annual Review of Sociology, 19, 353-373.McGoldrick, A., & Cooper, C. (1988). Early retirement.Chichester, England: GowerMoen, P. (1996). A Life Course Perspective on Retirement, Gender, and Well-Being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1, 131-144.Palmore, E. B., Burchett, B. M., Filenbaum, G. G., George,L. K., & Wallman, L. M. (1985). Retirement: Causes andconsequences. New York: Springer.Streib, G. F, & Schneider, C. J. (1971). Retirement inAmerican society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.