Midlife Work and Women’s Long-term Health and Mortality

• In Event: 4211 - The Roots of Inequality: Early and Mid-Life Determinants of Health and Well-being in Later Life

Abstract

While paid work is a well-established predictor of health, several gaps in our knowledge about the relationship between adult work patterns and later health and mortality remain, including whether these benefits persist over long periods of time and whether they are dependent on subjective experiences with work. In this paper we draw on more than three decades of data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Mature Women to assess how labor force participation over a period of twenty years during midlife is related to mental and physical health and mortality over the following sixteen to twenty-five years. We find that persistent work earlier in life continues to predict improved health and longevity many years later as women enter late life, even after accounting for health-linked variations in work experiences and the presence of later life work. These findings add to knowledge about the processes through which key adult social experiences shape health as individuals enter later life.

Authors

• Jennifer Caputo, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Eliza K. Pavalko, Indiana University

• Melissa Hardy, Pennsylvania State University