May 24, 2021

Dissertation, 24 May 2021: Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir

On 24th of May 2021, Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir at Karolinska Institutet, defended her doctoral thesis entitled: “Unequal tracks? Studies in work, retirement and health”

The overall aim of this thesis was to study how retirement is influenced by health status, socioeconomic position, and gender in Sweden; and in turn how
the timing of exit from the labour market is associated with health and functioning in late life. The four studies in this thesis were based on nationally representative longitudinal data from the Swedish Panel Study of Living Conditions of the Oldest Old (SWEOLD), Swedish Level-of-Living Survey (LNU), the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), Swedish Cause of Death Register, and income register data from Statistics Sweden: the Income and Taxation Register (IoT) and the Longitudinal Integration Database for Health Insurance and Labour Market Studies (LISA).

Overall, good physical functioning is not as important for continuing on the labour market today as it used to be a few decades ago, and working up to age 66 or longer had no negative effects on mortality or physical health in later life, for any socioeconomic group. Moreover, a large majority of people
maintained their pre-retirement self-rated health and physical working capacity during the transition to retirement, and for some years after retirement. However, a small group, characterised by poor working environment and low socioeconomic status, experienced a health decline after retirement. 

Photo of Harpa Sif Eyjólfsdóttir by Maria Yohuang

Read more: Harpa Sif Eyjolfsdóttir, Thesis 2021