Aging & Social Change: Twelfth Interdisciplinary Conference

Abstract

Involuntary retirement, common in many countries, leads to poor outcomes for individuals themselves, organizations, and society. However, little is known about the factors explaining involuntary retirement. The objective of this study was to conduct a systematic review to inform policy, practice, and research by examining factors explaining perceived involuntary retirement among older workers in high-income countries. The literature was systematically reviewed resulting in the identification of 514 records and nine studies eligible for analysis. One of these studies was assessed as high quality, six as moderate quality, and two as low quality. Disability and poor health status were found to be associated with perceived involuntary retirement in all but one of the nine studies. Younger age at retirement and job loss were found to be significant in five and four studies respectively. Other less common factors were caregiving responsibilities, lower education, and poorer finances. Many other factors were found significant in only one or two studies. Limitations of moderate to low-quality studies were the use of cross-sectional rather than longitudinal data (five studies), lack of sex-disaggregated analysis (six studies), non-nationally representative data (three studies), a limited range of factors considered in analyses (three studies examined factors in fewer than five main domains). These findings have implications for policy, practice, and research to inform involuntary retirement screening, outreach, and prevention efforts. However, caution should be used given that few studies matched the inclusion criteria and only one study was assessed as high quality, which suggests a lack of studies.