Retire early - die early

The Swedish Local reports:

The idea of a long, relaxed retirement may appeal to many after a life of hard work, but the results of a new Swedish study show that it might not be such a good idea after all.

A joint project from the Karolinska Institute and Linköping University has revealed that people who retire early are twice as likely to die earlier than the rest of the population. The increased risk affects both men and women, noted Dagens Medicin, which got hold of the unpublished results.

For twelve years researchers have studied almost a quarter of a million people in the county of Östergötland who was aged 16 to 64 in 1984.

They found that the risk of dying early was 2.5 times higher among women who retired early and 2.8 times higher among men who retired early.