Delaying a life milestone by just one year lowers your risk of dying by 11%

You may want to hold off on stopping the daily grind.

Recognizing and celebrating life milestones, like getting married, buying a home and retiring from the workforce, can benefit our health and well-being.

However, one study shows that delaying a big life marker could actually have a big impact on how long you live.

Big life milestones can affect health, and research shows delaying one in particular could impact the risk of death. fizkes – stock.adobe.com

While more people are trending towards early retirement — Gen Z and millennials are even taking “mini-retirements” — there may be unexpected benefits to a prolonged working life.

As of June, 42% of sitting CEOs were age 60 or older, and research from 2019 shows they may have the right idea about when to retire.

Despite several studies on the health impacts of retirement, few have looked at how it affects longevity and the risk of dying.

Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, a study of 2,956 older adults found that delaying retirement by one year decreased the risk of death from any cause by 11%, despite lifestyle, health or social and demographic characteristics.

The researchers used data collected between 1992 and 2010 from the Health and Retirement Study, a study between the National Institute on Aging and the University of Michigan to “describe changes in life patterns through the retirement transition,” according to the study.

The information collected included health conditions, family network, social relations, financial situation and employment status.

The participants were then split into two groups — healthy and unhealthy — based on their answers to the question, “Was poor health very important, moderately important, somewhat important, or not important at all for retirement?”

People who answered “not important at all” were considered healthy retirees, while those who picked any of the other three answers were considered unhealthy retirees.

Healthy adults who delayed retirement by one year had a decreased risk of death from any cause by 11%. Monkey Business – stock.adobe.com

The healthy retirees ranked health status as “not important at all” and didn’t take it into account when considering their retirement age.

Healthy retirees were more physically active, less likely to smoke, had a lower body mass index, fewer chronic conditions and better self-reported health.

From the healthy group, 466 retired before the average age of 62, while 483 retired later around, 67 years old.

Meanwhile, the unhealthy group had around 252 early retirees at 61 years of age, and 297 late retirees after 68.

Lower mortality rates were associated with both the healthy and unhealthy groups retiring later, but the unhealthy group only saw a 9% decrease in all-cause mortality risk.

Despite the findings being consistent with previous investigations of Austrian, German, Greek, Swedish and US populations, the connection between retirement age and death isn’t well-understood.

One theory is that work is a key component of many people’s identities, providing financial, social and cognitive resources.

Retiring potentially takes away those resources, leading to stress, cognitive decline, anxiety, depression and difficulty with daily activities.

Delaying retirement while also adding in volunteer opportunities and social activities could stave off cognitive, mental and physical declines.

A 2024 IHG Hotels & Resorts poll of 2,000 retired Americans found that many were “reinventing” life after work by traveling more, starting a hobby and generally living the life they wanted to when they were younger.

And experts agree that social isolation and loneliness — a growing health problem — can make it harder to age well, something to keep in mind at the post-retirement party.