Worklong: More years better lives - Impact of interventions and policies on prolonging working life in good health: an international study

HealthSociety

Worklong: More years better lives - Impact of interventions and policies on prolonging working life in good health: an international study

European governments have developed policies to keep workers staying in employment until older age, yet poor health remains an important cause of premature exit from the labour market. There is lack of evidence on whether and how health interventions and policies can prolong working lives as well as the differential effects of these interventions and policies.

The project is carried on by Mauricio Avendano Pabon, Ludovico Carrino and Laura Sochas from King's College London, alongside Erasmus Medical Center (the Netherlands) and Umeå University, and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council under the Joint Programming Initiative (JPI) “More Years, Better Lives – The Potential and Challenges of Demographic Change”.

Aims

The overall aim of this project is to examine the bidirectional links between employment and health by quantifying the impact of health interventions on the length of paid employment, and in turn, the impact of employment and retirement policies on pathways to retirement with their effects on late-life health.

We aim to focus on workplace interventions, health promotion programmes, and legislation and policies that:

Support workers with health problems to remain in paid employment
Prevent the onset or aggravation of health problems

As a second step, we will estimate the cost-effectiveness of these interventions and policies for prolonging working lives in different social groups.

Impact

The project will provide key evidence on the consequences of national policies on prolonging working careers and on the health of the workforce before, during, and after retirement. It will also demonstrate the potential benefits of workplace and health interventions on length of employment and worker’s health. The project will also provide important evidence on whether and how working longer has health consequences for older workers before and after statutory retirement.