Slow walking speed and health-related exit from employment among older workers over 5 years of follow-up: evidence from the Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) cohort study.

Introduction: With demographic changes, there is increasing demand for individuals and governments to lengthen working lives. Jobs that are very physically demanding are likely to be more difficult to sustain at older ages. If workers at risk of mismatch of demand and capability could be identified early, there would be opportunities for intervention for health or lifestyle and/or re-training or redeployment.

Morbidities among older workers and work exit: the HEAF cohort.

Background: Governments need people to work to older ages, but the prevalence of chronic disease and comorbidity increases with age and impacts work ability.

Aims: To investigate the effects of objective health diagnoses on exit from paid work amongst older workers.

Methods: Health and Employment After Fifty (HEAF) is a population cohort of adults aged 50-64 years recruited from English GP practices which contribute to the Clinical Practice Research Datalink (CPRD).

Is lifestyle change around retirement associated with better physical performance in older age?: insights from a longitudinal cohort.

Unlabelled: A growing evidence base links individual lifestyle factors to physical performance in older age, but much less is known about their combined effects, or the impact of lifestyle change. In a group of 937 participants from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development, we examined their number of lifestyle risk factors at 53 and 60-64 years in relation to their physical performance at 60-64, and the change in number of risk factors between these ages in relation to change in physical performance. At both assessments, information about lifestyle (physical activity, smoking, diet) was obtained via self-reports and height and weight were measured.

Older working adults in the HEAF study are more likely to report loneliness after two years of follow-up if they have negative perceptions of their work quality.

Background: Loneliness is an important public health issue associated with mortality and morbidity. Often researched amongst older people, less is known about risk factors for loneliness among adults aged 50-64 years who are in work. We investigated (a) if exit from the workforce increases the odds of loneliness; (b) whether adverse psychosocial work factors are associated with increased odds of loneliness over 2 years of follow-up; and (c) whether the association is stronger among subjects still working compared with those who have exited the workforce.

Relationships Between Level and Change in Sarcopenia and Other Body Composition Components and Adverse Health Outcomes: Findings from the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.

We investigated how baseline values and rates of decline in components of sarcopenia and other body composition parameters relate to adverse clinical outcomes using the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study. 2689 participants aged 70-79 years were studied. Appendicular lean mass, whole body fat mass, and total hip BMD were ascertained using DXA; muscle strength by grip dynamometry; and muscle function by gait speed.